Mix Tape

I was at my friend's house tonight, and she dragged out a bin of tapes. We found some gems including Weird Al, Skinny Puppy, The Cure and James. There were some mix tapes in there as well. Do you all remember your tapes? Did someone special make you a mix tape? Did you make someone a mix tape?
Here's a super embarassing blast from my past. I have a red Case Logic case of cassettes in the basement. I know it includes: Wilson Phillips, Roxette, U2, Sting, OMD, a bunch of REM, Sinead O'Connor and some other winners...

Old Friends

So, I'm on a quest to find old friends on MySpace...I guess I'll see if they still want to be my friend...

4/29
Yeah! One old friend wants to be my new friend!!!

Apple TV

OK. I love Apple products and my husband and I totally fit into Apple's customer category.
In any event, we went out right away and bought an Apple TV. This stupid thing gave Dustin a HUGE headache. Though, in retrospect, I believe that it is the Linksys router and of course, not the Apple TV :)

Our house came with a network which we thought would work to our advantage, but it seems like some of the wires are bad. All we wanted to do was run this thing wired to our tower so we didn't have to stream as many files. Our house also seems to be a bunker of sorts and doesn't always have a great wireless signal.

After Dustin spent the entire day on the phone with Linksys, Apple, and finally a senior technical agent at Apple.

Finally we got the thing to stream our music...

I thought technology was getting easier, not harder...Does anyone else have an Apple TV? Even though it was in the circular at Best Buy, neither of the home theater associates knew what it was...Ahhh. Sad.

WoLF

So, most of you who know me know that I participate in Best Buy's WoLF program. For those of you who don't this is a program that was started by one of Best Buy's female VPs. It stands for Women's Leadership Forum, and is comprised of approx. 1600 men and women in all sorts of job positions throughout the company. There are several ways to participate, and I happen to participate on a "pack." My pack meets monthly in the DC/Maryland/Northern VA area. We have 5 corporate members and about 12 field members. Each month we get together and we discuss company things, participate in giving back to the community or other things... It is a great idea, but when you have 17 great, dynamic people in a room, it is hard to get things accomplished in one 4 hour meeting a month. For the most part, it is great, but if you ask me, this last meeting was a disaster. I really apologize if any of my pack members read this and get offended, but this is what I feel. We went to the Distribution center to visit some of the women that work there and in the service center. It was my impression that we would introduce ourselves and then open the floor to conversation. One of our members took over and pretty much directed all of us into telling our own "wolf story." By the time we were done, there was nothing else to say. I'm sure that some of the stories touched the people, and honestly, it was nice for me to hear some stories that I had not before. However, I think the other associates were sort of overwhelmed by us...Not only that, but we all ended up missing our flights, including the visitor we brought in from out of town. I honestly thought that two of my pack members were going to have breakdowns. I returned mentally exhausted. I really think that everyone is not on the same page. and I have some major concerns on how our next project is going to come together. Aside from that, I had a big miss at the regular part of my job and came back to some grumbling. Needless to say, it was a long week and I was very busy today...

I will post more on Wolf later...

My Friends

So, I have sad news tonight. I learned on Wednesday that our neighbors, but more friends than neighbors, are moving :( It is a double edged sword, as I know they will be moving on to better jobs and a city with a lower cost of living, but there will be a void in my heart and in my neighborhood. I will miss their creative spirits and smiling faces. As always, I will be able to to keep up with them via the wonders of the intraweb and jeff's ever entertaining blog, and the good old telephone. Hell, I could even drive to Wisconsin to visit them. Unfortunately, it doesn't take the place of running up the street...

Not only are they moving, but our other neighbors and friends that live next door to them are moving as well. Did we move in and scare everyone we met away? I suppose that there is now opportunity to meet some new friends...What's the old song from Brownies..."Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold..." then I think the group takes turns and has the magical experience of singing in the round!

Speaking of Brownies, I did a badge with yet another neighbor's Brownie Troop. It was quite fun. I helped them learn their Careers Try-It! We talked about women in the past and some women who were pioneers in the past. Not just the Laura Ingalls type pioneer, but career pioneers. We also talked about things you like to do that could be a career. We had lots of shopper, athletes and lifeguards. Vetranarian was another big choice. I guess we had a lot of pet lovers. I finished by having them draw a logo or a business card or a picture of where their business would be. The drawings were a little less exciting than I had expected, but maybe my expectations were too high.

As far as expectations go, I let some of my co-workers down at work. Ahh. I will take it as a learning. This past week was a tough one. I am working on my drawing. I will start to post some sketches...They are getting a little better. I am really trying to work on perspective and getting comfortable drawing little things without rulers. The only thing is that I need to set up a little schedule for myself. I am having a hard time deciding what to draw...maybe I'll just piggyback on other's projects and draw related things...

Auto Show

So, in light of my friend, Gretchen, posting a slew of recent blogs, including our trip to the Auto Show about a month ago, I figured that I better post a few of the photos I liked. As she said, the auto show here in MN is kind of a disappointment, especially after growing up in Detroit. There really aren't very exciting displays and the concept cars are pretty lacking. Also, the lighting in those places is pretty weird, and I think the setting was wrong on my camera. Unfortunately, I do not have Photoshop on my laptop, and although iPhoto is great, it's no Photoshop. I was trying to take photos for work of some cool displays, but I really didn't find anything too inspiring. I think I put one case in here with some wheels embedded in it. If I edit the other uninteresting photos, I'll post them...

So, a description of the photos...
- An awesome Lotus. Not a bad deal in terms of sports cars you can buy these days...
- Gretchen and Jahnvi checking out a Mini
- Dustin in a hot 911. Should I expect one in our driveway one day?
- That's me...in a GTI that is the same color as our old kitchen...
- A display I liked...

Ice Cream

So, this is one of the things I had to share with you from the other site I regularly blog on. Sorry I haven't been posting here lately, but I've been super busy at work, and then I had to put some time into checking some of the work blogs out. It really isn't part of my job, but I have made it my responsibility to stay tuned to what is going out in the Best Buy Cyberspace world. This post was up recently, and I don't know where it came from, but I want a t-shirt with this design on it. If the file wasn't so small, I'd totally make an iron-on. Maybe I will anyways, it will just be very little. It will be good for people totally in my personal space.
What do you think? Do you think it is funny?

TV

So,

I never used to watch TV, other than stupid Re-runs of Saved by the Bell and Wings...but now, with the advent of the DVR and an awesome new TV, I spend countless hours watching garbage that sucks me in.

Has anyone been watching LOST? For the two or three years that that show has been on, I can't believe that they have only been on the island for what, 60 days? Why do they show you an episode where tons of "important" stuff happens, then they follow it with two or three filler episodes that keep you hanging...? I keep watching it...
(like right now, as I blog about it...)Desmond is having another vision and has convinced Charlie, Jin and Hurley to go with him. Is he trying to get Charlie killed? I guess we'll find out in a minute...

As well as LOST, we have found the first season of The OC on the Soap Network. I really can't knock those who watch American Idol when I watch this other crap. All I can say is that if you watch AI, you are buying into the American Pop Culture crappy music that hey pump into all the crappy radio stations that are out there...

So, are we going to see if Juliette is truly a plant tonight, or is she going to cross the others...?

Oh wait, commercial break...

Our Woodwork

So, we worked really hard to redo our TV room. We pulled down all of the nasty walls including the wall on the other side of the room. That was to allow us to change the very large door into a pocket door. On top of that, we removed ALL of the woodwork in the room and lovingly sanded every single piece of it. We then re-stained it and put a new coat of urethane on it. It changed the color. In fact, the woodwork now looks all milky and not at all like we took the time to do everything we did to it.

So, the other day, we bought new oil based urethane and went ahead and put a coat of that on the doors. It is definetly the winner. I really want to take the urethane back to Menard's, but I sort of feel like it is the same as telling a server that you didn't like the sandwich you just finished...

Helvetica-A Movie about a Font!!!

So,

Here is a new design movie about a font! I can hardly wait to check it out! Here is a description of the movie:

About the Film

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

Duluth

So, Here are some photos of the industrial areas of Duluth. We were there this past weekend and made some stops at some plastic distributors. I should have walked around a little more, but this is what I captured out of the window of the car...

Now, the one on the top is a different story. That was in Grand Marais. I think it was a bait shop, but I'm not sure. If it had been open, I would have ventured in. Now I'll just have to wonder...

Check out my portfolio

More Snow!

So, Believe it or not, we had more snow last night! Not a lot, but after being almost 80 degrees last week, it was a strange sight. It will, however, allow us to get one more trip snowboarding in! So much for spring skiing though, as the temp is still supossed to be in the 20s.

Been thinking about this movie...

So, For whatever reason, I've been thinking about this movie. I saw an article online saying that Disney didn't re-release it on it's 60th anniversary. This was a huge monetary loss for Disney who was afraid that folks these days would find the movie racist. What do you think? I remember seeing this movie when I was very small...