Things that are Awesome, Part 3

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Surprise Parties

Crazy photo of meSo I happened to say in the course of talking about something else, about how one of my lifelong dreams was having someone throw me a surprise party. I just mentioned it in passing, in part of answering a question about ways to win my heart.

Some awesome friends of mine happened to notice this, and actually threw me a surprise party (for my half-birthday). I have to say, I was 100% surprised, didn’t suspect a thing at all! AT ALL. It was awesome. Seriously one of the most awesome things ever.

Also they got me a cake! And made me drinks and played games and it was thoroughly awesome. And Trevor took that crazy photo of me. Yay!

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age LogoTrevor picked up the Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition (Dragon Age: Origins, along with all the downloadable content, and Awakenings). He picked it up because he thought he’d like to play it, and I took to it quicker than he or I expected. And I’m a huge fan. I’ve never really gotten into an RPG video game as much I have this one. I think part of it is the characters- I find them very engaging, and I definitely enjoy all the character interactions. The story is pretty awesome as well.

And the voice acting! Some really amazing voice work on this title. I recognized a few voices right away (Tim Russ, Kate Mulgrew, Tim Curry) but I also really enjoyed the work from people whose voices I didn’t know (Steve Valentine, Steve Blum, Corinne Kempa, etc).

I finished my first play-through last night, and I’m going to have to start a new game and try some things differently- I think I’ll have to play through 3 times more at least in order to try all the things I want to.

Another thing that’s awesome about the game- the score. It’s my first real introduction to Inon Zur as a game composer. He’s done other games, but none that I’ve played. I was seriously an instant fan. He makes great use of horns and brass, writes gorgeous melodies (a sure way to win me over) and has great orchestrations that really evoke images and emotions better than any I’ve come across in a game before. I love film music and game music, and he’s definitely one of my new favourites.

Sunshine

A little sun (especially in the morning and afternoon when I’m going to or from work) makes everything better. As much as I avoid too much sun exposure (fair skin and a family history of skin cancer makes for a healthy avoidance of sun damage) I love a nice sunny day in the winter.

Favourite sweaters

Do you have one of these? I have this sort of army-green sweater with a huge cowly turtleneck, and I feel like a million bucks in it. Wearing this sweater just makes my day that much more awesome. I wish I had one for every day of the week.

The sunglass clip

I have to wear corrective lenses to drive, and thus, sunglasses become more difficult, as I’m not a contacts person. Enter the sunglass clip, that clips on to your existing eyeglasses! They’re much nicer nowadays than the flip-up clips from the 80s, and I’m super happy to have mine. I don’t really like transistions or photo-grey lenses, because I think they don’t go back to clear soon enough or fully enough. So this is a perfect solution for me.

Awesome headphones

Headphones
My ears stick out from my head in such a way that finding headphones that fit and stay comfortable over a decent length of time is difficult. At work, recently, we all got new headphones that are actually comfortable for me, and really nice for audio work or listening to music while we’re working! They’re the Sony MDR-V600 model. I love them.

Things that are Awesome, Part 2

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My Keurig Coffee Maker
I am kind of in love with my coffee maker. Trevor got it for me for my birthday a few years back, and it is seriously magical. It’s one of those cup-at-a-time makers, and since I am the only one in the house who drinks coffee, it’s perfect for me.

I also recently found a shop near me (Tweed and Hickory) that sells a huge variety of K-cups, and particularly my favourite kind (Creme Caramel!), in the larger box size. Yes!

Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs
I’ve never really been a fan of the Cadbury Creme Egg. All that goo in the middle was too much for me. Too much sugary goo, not enough chocolatey outside. And too big to eat without making a mess.

This year, some friends of mine told me about the MINI Creme Egg. So I bought a tube of them (they sometimes come in tubes, apparently) over the weekend, and tried them.

They are lovely and perfect. Much better chocolate-to-goo ratio, easier to eat, and not so huge. Hooray for the Mini Creme Egg!

Chili Cookoffs

At work, we have chili cookoffs twice a year, with the money raised going to charity. I make a chili most of the time, and I also have been running the cookoffs for the past few times. It has gone pretty well! We raise a good amount of money for whatever charity we’re giving to, and the chili is awesome.

I usually enter a chili, but I never win. This time I got a good amount of votes though! I was pleased. Hooray for chili cookoffs!

Winning awards from the WODL

The production of The Penelopiad that was involved with last fall was entered in the Western Ontario Drama League festival as an “Out of Festival” entrant (meaning that we were not planning to be eligible to take the show to the festival that happens each year.

The production won two awards- Best Ensemble, and an adjudicators award that was named “Fearless Theatricality or Theatre on a Shoestring Award”, haha. It was awesome. The first show KWLT has had adjudicated in a long time, and we made quite a good showing. Our director was nominated for Best Direction as well. Awesome!

Movies, weather, music, and running

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I finally saw The King’s Speech this past week, and it was awesome! And not just because of Colin Firth. 🙂 The costumes were really quite splendid as well, the screenplay was good, the acting was superb. I really enjoyed it.

This week also brought some very welcome above-freezing weather. Up to 7 or 8 degrees a couple days in a row! A lot of the snow melted, and everyone got a taste of that mental and physical perking-up that spring brings. It was awesome. I went out without my snow boots on! There’s something really awesome about the first day you can go without snow boots or a coat. Even if it is in February and the winter weather is still going to come back again before spring arrives properly.

Was back at the gym this week after a few weeks of not going, as well. I did lose a bit of speed in those couple of weeks, but I managed to get through one long-ish run last night (just over 6 miles) so that was good. I needed it.

Starting to work on the St. John Passion in choir. I never thought I’d say this (being a long-time anti-Bach type) but it’s nice to come back to Bach. I think I’m just now starting to realize why the big Bach fans feel the way they do. It’s a different challenge from the 20th century stuff we’ve just finished, and there’s something very comfortable about baroque tonality, even if the actual singing can be quite difficult sometimes.

Things that are awesome

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This is just going to be a quick catch-all of things in my life right now that are awesome.

Snowthrower of awesome

Our electric snowthrower–  we don’t have a big driveway, but it’s enough that shoveling gets to be a time-sucking endeavour.  This thing makes clearing snow a lot quicker, and we don’t wind up with huge piles of snow that are hard to see around when we’re backing out of the driveway.  It’s a Toro 1800 Power Curve .

It’s pretty sturdy for an electric, and though it’s not made to eat through lots of slush and ice, it does great with all different kinds of snow.

Green Chai Tea – This stuff is awesome.  I like chai, I like green tea, and this particular combination is good.  The little tag on the teabag has a fortune-type thing!

Grooveshark–  Grooveshark is an amazing app that gives you access to a huge catalog of music you can stream- it’s basically like a huge, all-request radio station.  You can upload your own music so that you can access it through Grooveshark, and you can access music that others have uploaded as well.  You can set up playlists or use playlists that others have shared.  It’s really where I think music is going.  I purchased a VIP membership last year in order to  help support the company.

The performance is great. It’s quick, downtime is pretty rare (though not unheard of) and improvements come pretty frequently.  If you’re not already using it, you should start!

Sleep– I think one of my unwritten New Year’s resolutions is to get more sleep.  It’s amazing how much better everything is when one just gets enough sleep.  It’s one of the first things to go when time gets tight, and I think it needs to have higher priority than that.

Photo of Fuzzball, our new kitten

The Fuzz

The Fuzz– Our new cat is pretty awesome.  Even though he tends to start fights with Bumblecat, he’s pretty darn cute and hopefully he’ll calm down some as he gets older and he won’t get himself into trouble as much.