Tuesday, January 19, 2010

It's so shiny!

So last night was my staff party.

I won "Most Valuable Teammate". This gave me a sweater and a $50 gift card to a spa. Later, they offered me the chance to keep my winnings OR swap it for one of the envelopes. The envelopes could have awesome stuff, or it could have mcdonalds gift cards. I was feeling lucky.

I picked an envelope. It was the little white one.

I won this.


I've always wanted a scooter!!! Now if only I could ride the thing. Spring, get here NOW!!!

-janeovision.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

what do you remember of the first 10 years?

2010, a new year, a new decade. A fresh start.

I’ve been talking to a lot of friends, co-workers, peers (etc.) about the last decade, and the first real start in the new millennium. And we’ve come to a conclusion about this first introduction to the 2000’s.

It’s sucked.

We’ve had war, terrorist attacks, tsunami’s, earthquakes, economic downturn (on more than one occasion) murder, rage and hate. In general, the first ten years of the millennium have been a downer. When you ask someone about what they remember about the past ten years, it’s hard to think of the positive stuff, since the negative has been so prominent.

So, that being said, I thought we should try to find the positive in the past 10 years! Yea, we did have a rough decade, but there was some positive stuff too! What I did was, with the help of friends, co-workers, and even guests at the restaurant, I have compiled a list of some of the GOOD things that have happened in the past year.

Here we go…

Ipods and itunes – everyone can afford one now, they are the new way to enjoy music. You can have 5 albums, or 5 weeks of music on something as small as a matchbook or as large as your palm (which is still pretty awesome!) all the music, movies and radio you could want at your fingertips. And with the development of shared music and itunes, there is no limit to what you can enjoy
Dove “Real Beauty” Campaign – It was about time someone took a look at the media and say ‘this is not right’. Creating a campaign acknowledging and praising all types of women, body types and declaring them beautiful. Hopefully is helping this budding generation of girls that are being so overwhelmed with Hollywood enjoy the beauty they have and make their individuality hot.
Celebrity Arrests – I know, I know, but these indiscretions of the rich and famous remind us that not only are they human, but also really, really stupid.
Kanye West – He’s a jackass. We all hate him, we all love him because we all hate him. Jackass.
Red Bull – who needs coffee when you can have a caffeine surge in a can? Plus, this one you can mix with alcohol more easily! Hyper drunkards for all!
Obama – okay, there seems to be some nervous people now, since it’s taking time to get stuff done and he’s backtracking on stuff. Welcome to politics. He’s still made a huge impact on what the future is to become, he’s our first black president, AAAND he thinks Kanye is a jackass too.
Pageants – This is a little known fact, but National beauty pageants (minus the Trump franchise of course) are no longer aired on national broadcasts. Booyea.
Youtube – you can watch anything from any era, from any person, from any theme, mood, or personal style of the video poster. Whether it’s breakdancing, epic fails, music videos, tv and movie clips, the options are endless, with thousands of videos posted every day, there is no limit to your procrastination.
Social Networking sites – Keep up with friends from all over the world, whether you’re BFF’s, random bar friends, or just want to stalk, you can now do that without the fear of that restraining order!
Nunavut.
• Gay rights – There’s still a LOONG way to go, but at least there’s a start.
Life – This one is a little broad, but it seems that in the past few years, we have demanded a better quality of life and we’ve demanded a simpler life. Simple is better.
Technological boom – wii, cell phones, IMAX, etc have really developed a lot in the past decade. I remember by cell in 2002 and game cube. Fast forward to PS3 and skype and the interwebs. We’ve come along way, baby.
The euro
• Breakdown of the US empire – suck it, USA.
SARS-stock – Toronto was almost destroyed by the SARS outbreak. Music and people coming together saved that city. Sweet.
“Your mom’ and “That’s what she said” jokes – You know you love them.
Style Evolution.
• Books into movies – Not all of these were a good thing, but some were amazing.
Y2K – that was fun, wasn’t it?
American politics – We all got a good laugh. Thanks Sarah Palin!
Tax-Free Savings Accounts
• Hybrid Cars
• Letterman brings NY back on the air – This was huge to me. Even after all the chaos and tragedy of 9-11, David Letterman came back on the air and reminded people that it was okay for people to laugh and move forward from the tragedy. He made us laugh again and saved us from the pain.
Wikipedia – fun facts and useless info, not to mention the power to change the info!
Blogs and websites about nothing – TFLN, MLIA, FML, Fuckyoupenguin, etc have made procrastination more fun and just allowed us to laugh and vent and share more of ourselves to each other. Occasionally, it’s a bit much, but some people forget the power of the interwebs.


Now, Obviously this is only grazing the surface of good things that happened. But, like I said, it’s hard to find the positive when the negative is so prominent. Even some of the positive builds out of the negative.. Definitely not the easiest thing in the world. Either way, there was some good, there was some positive, and we were able to move forward from the bad that has happened, or at least, we’re working on it.


Here's to another 10 years, and here's hoping they are awesome.

-janeovision

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

new year, new rant!

Happy 2010, everyone!

It's a new year! full of new opportunities, new adventures and new experiences! It's a fresh start, with a new decade and a clean slate ahead of us, there is a fresh new world we can create before us!

That being said...

This rant is going out to those negative people out there. These are those individuals that choose to cloud their vision with nothing but the negative bullshit that is happening or has happened to them. They suck the positive out of the room, they tear down the good moment being experienced, and they generally drag down everyone else into their hole of despair.

That's right. I'm talking about the Debbie Downers out there.

You just can't seem to find the positive in anything. At all. This collective of Negative Nancy's (or Norma/Nick, if you prefer) somehow have this uncanny ability to look at the present and find every single disgusting, terrible, and worthless thing to the surface and shine it under unflattering light, not only shoving it in the face of the rest of the world, but making it look fat and sallow too. If the current day isn't depressing enough for them, they claw out the horros of the past and slap that on a platter for everyone to stare at. Then, just for fun, when the rest of us try to claw for hope under the pile of shit they shovel onto us when we look to the future, they find a way to suck the fun out of that too.

Fun suckers!


To all the Debbie Downers out there, I say this to you:


Get over yourself.
Seriously.


People like this drive me nuts. They have no concept of the big picture that there are good things out there. They can never seem to find the positive spin on anything or even look on the bright side of life. Because it IS there. It must be absolutely exhausting being so negative all the time. Maybe the exhaustion+lack of sleep combo fuels the fire... I'm sure there's a scientific calculation to the process and result of being a Debbie Downer.

Now, I'm not going to leave this with no blood on my hands. I know I have my negative side too. Hell, I'm ranting and bitching about negative people. There's a bit of irony in there, I'm sure. I have my bad days and my own moments being a Debbie Downer. And I'm certainly not perfect specimen of life with a horseshoe up my ass. I have my own shitty moments, bad turns of luck, health, personal, and otherwise issues that aren't necessarily awesomefatasticsauce. Shit happens. It happens to me, it happens to you, it happens to the barbie girl in the mall and the Uberjock on the street. But I have the common sense to know that there is a bigger picture and enjoy the positive in the big perspective of things.

I may not be perfectly healthy, but I'm not dead.
I may hate my job some days, but at least I have one.
I may not be in a relationship with the man of my dreams, but better single than in an abusive relationship.
I may have had things stolen from me, but they're only things. I'm still here.
I may not have my dream job right now, but I have time.
I may be horribly in debt from school, but I have a job and can pay my bills and have a bed to sleep in and a roof over my head.
I may have a bad experience with a stranger, but I still have my friends
I may have a bad day today, but there's always tomorrow. And the day after that.


There's always the positive. You have to see it before you become blinded by all the bad out there.

During the death of Michael Jackson, I got into a back-and-forth FB battle with a friend about him and his persona. I wanted him to be remembered as the Pop icon he was and the positive influence he's had on so many lives and how his work has molded the music and the spectacle of music we see today. My friend only saw the negative of the rumours and trials and the general bad shit that goes with Michael Jackson's name. (You all know what it is, so I won't bother explaining) Now this friend is not a regular Debbie Downer, but it was so frustrating listening to her tear apart this icon. I know he has this bad rep, and i'm in NO WAY saying he's innocent, some of the shit is pretty fucked up. But to ignore all the positive influence he's had is just ignorant and... well, silly.

There'e one thing I said during this back and forth battle. I"m not sure if I made it up or if I got it from someone else, but it still rings in my head now:

"See the good or drown in your own hate."

See the good, people. Find the positive and keep it with you in your life. Otherwise, you are sure to drown. Always look on the bright side of life.


Rant ended.

-janeovision