How Addicted are You?

I wonder if anyone actually realizes how addicted they are to their computer...I'm sure if you sat down and thought about it, you may be surprised at how much time you actually spend at your computer - especially if you have a laptop! I went to visit a friend's family recently, and instead of talking to one another, everyone sat around on their laptops and did their own thing while the TV blared on in the background.

I too, have fallen prey to the computer addiction - now I can't even watch TV without being on my laptop at the same time! However, I could argue that I'm exempt from any addiction statistics since I make my living off of my computer...but unfortunately, I am in way over my head, so I can't really excuse myself!

A few days ago my laptop refused to boot up, and if I had a Loonie for every time I went to go on my laptop in one afternoon, I would be a rich girl! (I was going to say "if I had a dollar, but I figured I might as well be Canadian about it!) We have certainly become a society that is dependent (and addicted!) to technology, and we like it! It is definitely a time consuming addiction though, and one that separates us from our loved ones instead of bringing us closer together.

This evening, break the routine of getting on the computer right away after supper. Spend time with your family or go to see a friend that you haven't talked to in a while. Let me know how your technology-free evening goes - I will be right here, on my laptop the whole time! What? I make my living on this laptop, and you are going to have to tear it out of my cold, dead hands before I'll let you take it away! ...ahem... did I say that out loud?

Adventures in Ottawa...

I am 26 years old, and I haven't been to the nation's capital yet. That is, until a week ago, when I finally visited family in Ottawa, and I was surprised at how beautiful the city is! We saw the Rideau Canal, went up in the Peace Tower, and had a tour of the Royal Canadian Mint. It was all fun, but the tour was a bit cramped, what with all of the people who weren't wearing any deodorant who crowded around the windows, hogging the view of the fascinating coin making process!

After spending way too much money in the Sugar Mountain Candy Store (I felt like a kid again!), we walked for an unbelievably long time around downtown Ottawa, seeing the sights, some very "interesting" people, and getting very painful blisters on my feet from the wrong choice of footwear. Never wear flip flops for walking in - unless its a 15 minute walk...

Cheap night still applies in Ottawa, so we went to see Post Grad. It was pretty good - one of those different movies, the kind that I usually enjoy the most. HOWEVER! We couldn't help but be distracted by the overly affectionate couple who chose to sit in the middle of the theater, making out throughout the whole movie!! I thought they couldn't get any closer together, until she moved to his lap and stayed there...wow..we tried to take a picture of them for my blog, (I would've posted it on here too!) but unfortunately I didn't think of it until after the movie started and it was too dark to get anything. :(

I spent too much money (as usual!) but I really enjoyed the time with family and seeing Ottawa was great, so I would do it all over again! If you haven't seen our country's capital, go see it - it's worth it. We meant to get up early one morning and see the changing of the guards, but we never made it - actually we never made it to bed earlier that 2am...that's what you get when you put 3 Davis cousins together!

It was probably better that we didn't make it to the changing of the guards anyway - I definitely would've embarrassed my cousins by saying something to the guards, or shouting "BOO!" to try and get a facial expression out of them! As it was, I embarrassed them a bit, and they had to stop me from a few other things - apparently something happens to me when I'm with my cousins. I seem to lose some rather important inhibitions and stop caring what the public thinks of me when I'm with my cousins, and I'm not sure why, but it sure makes things interesting!

I Found a Roomie!!!

Well, after months of searching for a roommate, I finally have someone moving into the bedroom downstairs. (Main floor, not basement.) And what a search it has been! I had ads on every free website I could think of - kijiji.ca, roommates.com, I pasted it on Facebook a few times, told everyone I know, and I called the local churches in the area and asked them if anyone in their congregation was looking for a room.

Out of all those things, I didn't think I would find a roommate through calling the churches! But wouldn't you know, one of them put it up on their bulletin board, and someone saw it and told someone who doesn't even go to that church about it, and now I have a roomie!

I had to weed out a few weirdos before I found someone I clicked with too. One in particular was very interesting...and by interesting, I mean that I would rather live in a cardboard box in the river than share a house with her! She was telling me what to do within seconds of walking through the front door! She was sarcastic, bossy and a little rude as well. My neighbors, who happen to be my Aunt and Uncle took a peek at her when she drove up and they could tell just by looking at her that she was a no!

We concluded that she must have been recently divorced and was very bitter about it. Hopefully she doesn't have any children!

I had another person coming to see the room a couple of hours after her, and I was a bit nervous! If I had to put up with 2 people like her, I think I would have called it quits... The next girl was like a breath of fresh air in comparison though, and she moves in Sept 1.

I have lived alone for 2 years now, so I'm not sure what this new living situation will be like, but hopefully I've made the right choice. After all, I don't want to become too set in my ways or anything - someone once told me that living alone makes it harder to adjust when you get married. So maybe a roommate will teach me to compromise and get me used to having to think about someone else's needs for a change...let's just hope that I don't hate it!

I do want to get married someday when the right guy comes along, and if he ever asks my roommate what it was like to live with me, hopefully her answer won't send him a-running!

I guess the Honeymoon is Over!

You can make some of the people happy some of the time, but you can't make all of the people happy all of the time. Everyone who has ever been elected President of the United States must know this truth better than anyone else!

Everyone loves you on the campaign trail, on Inauguration Day and up to the first couple of months after election. After that, approval ratings start going down and you become the prime target of Letterman, O'Brien and Fallon. The worse the President's ratings are, the better theirs are!

Why can't we be happy with the person that we elected into office? Why do we assume that they are perfect and can do no wrong? We must assume that, because we get so upset when they make a mistake! Now, I agree that when someone is leading the country, they should do their very best to be a good role model, and we are sadly lacking this with many politicians these days. Barack Obama appears to be a pretty good role model however, and I think we should stop complaining and get behind the man that we elected into office a few months ago! (Would you rather have George W back?) :P

Come on Americans, Barack Obama won the Presidency by a landslide - and you made that happen! The honeymoon period is over, and his approval ratings are falling steadily. Do you think you made a mistake? If you are not happy with some of his decisions, contact your congressman and be the change you want to see. If all you do is sit at home complaining about what is happening in your country, you will never see the change you want. If all you do is complain no matter who you vote for, then keep your complaints to yourself!

We need to get a better attitude about our leadership in America; remember, no one is perfect, and no matter how much you like a person, they will let you down at some point. You can't control the actions of anyone else, but you can control your reaction!

You know what they say about assuming...

I wonder why we always assume the worst in most situations. How many of you think you're in for something good when someone tells you that they need to talk to you? Or how about when your boss asks you to step into his office for a minute? Even when it is a friend or family member that needs to talk to us, we automatically start racking our brains, trying to think what we did wrong that day!

I had an experience like that a couple of days ago, when one of my writing clients emailed me with this message: "Please call me at: ### ### ####." Well, I immediately started to worry! I had just started working for this client, and I couldn't think of anything I could have done wrong in such a short period of time. Nevertheless, I had that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach as I dialed the number, and I tried my best to keep my voice from shaking when she answered the phone...

It was about a raise in pay! She had referred me to another part of the company that paid a lot more for writing than the articles that she had me writing. All of my anxiety was for nothing.

Sometimes it will be bad news that you get, but even so, there is still no need to panic. 99% of the time, problems can be worked out, and you will walk away feeling okay.

Why Don't They Just Ask Us?

Health care seems to be the "hot topic" now, probably ever since Michael Moore had the guts to make a documentary about it! If I recall, America's health care system came out under Cuba's!

As a Canadian, I am proud to say that we are number 2 in the world in regards to our health care. True, on a government sponsored health care system the waiting time is a LOT longer, but as a Canadian citizen, I can feel good knowing that no matter where I am in this country, I will be taken care of if something happens. There are many people who would never be able to afford health care if it were to be privatized. If it ever came down to a hospital bill of thousands (or hundreds of thousands. as it is in a lot of cases) of dollars, or a 2 hour wait, I've got a lot more time than money!

I've been hearing the discussions and debates about Barack Obama's plan to reform America's health care system, and to be honest, sometimes it just makes me laugh. They are so scared of this plan being put into place! Do they not know that public health care works in a lot of countries? Don't they realize that they have a neighbour that has done it successfully for years? They could call in a favor and just ask us for some advice - I'm sure we could help them out quite a bit. And I'm sure we would as well. Even if they asked rudely, we are nice people! We would still gladly help out.

But...like most big brothers, they are too used to helping the little brother, and probably think that little brother can't help them...

Hopefully they do eventually reform their health care, so that millions of people can afford to go to the hospital when they are ill or injured. (Americans are well known for being proud to be Americans, but when that guy in Michael Moore's film "Sicko" found out it would cost him $72,000 to sew two fingers back on, I'll bet he wished he had been born somewhere else!)

Please get a grip America...let's move onto something else. The only people fighting the reform are the rich anyways, because they are scared of being treated just like everybody else.

I'm My Own Boss! Wait A Minute...

I've been "working from home" for a few weeks now, and I must admit, the dream job situation does have its challenges. There are so many different distractions around here! Why is it that we would rather clean, dust, vacuum, (blog,) do dishes, organize, fold laundry, unpack boxes, hang pictures, etc, than work? It doesn't matter what kind of work either - and in my case, it's writing.

I have always wanted to be able to stay at home and support myself freelance writing. Now (finally!) it looks like I'll be able to do that with a part-time job teaching 2 days a week to supplement my income. However, it takes discipline - and a lot of it! Being my own boss is great, but I really need to start listening to myself. Hmmm, maybe if I threatened to fire myself I would be more on the ball...

I grew up as an only child, so I'm used to being alone. I always had to play alone, and I was pretty good at making up for the lack of siblings. I even played board games with myself (somehow I always won...I'll let you think about that one ;) So, it makes sense that I would want to work by myself, but to be honest, it was a lot easier when I was a child - probably because playing is always more fun than working! ;)

Don't get me wrong though; I love writing, and it doesn't even matter what I'm writing about. Sometimes I write about fun topics, but there are a lot of times when I have to write 500 words on the most boring subjects, but once I start writing, it always feels good - feels write. Oops, I mean it feels right. (Just a little writer's humor there for you!)

It's hard to go to work at a "normal" job day in and day out when you've known what your dream is since a young age. (I was 5 when I knew I wanted to be a writer.) But it's way too easy to put your dreams on the back burner and forget about them. Maybe they don't seem realistic, or maybe your family or friends think you'll never make it - whatever the reasons are, you are afraid to step out and take a risk. I have 2 words for you: "DO IT!" Even if you have to work full-time and do what you love part-time, do it! Don't live a life of regrets - live a full and satisfying life, and do what you were born to do.