Pages

Friday, February 11, 2011

Something New...

Ok, so this blog wasn't resurrected like I thought it might be. I think it's time to put it to sleep.

I'll be starting a fancy new blog featuring my art in the near future. I have recently been inspired to start working on my drawing skills with intensity. And I have some goals in my head that I'm excited about. This is going to be a bit of a process and I have to be patient but stay tuned!

Also, I should mention our wedding. Some people have been asking about where/when it is and all that. It'll be in Paros, Greece on July 30. It's going to be a Greek Orthodox wedding; in other words, there will be no English. It's a beautiful ceremony though and it'll be fun. You'll get to chuck rice at us too! Anyways, when the invites go out (hopefully soon) I'll put up a website where I'll put more info about the island.

Have a great weekend!

-M

Friday, April 30, 2010

Blog Resurrection?

I kind of feel like blogging again. This blog died a while ago but maybe I'll resurrect it. Not sure what I'll write about, maybe just random stuff on my mind or activities I get up to. It's always fun to look back on posts that were written years before even though, at the time, it may not be as interesting.

Since the last post, I'm still living and working at the same places. Tony and I are together going on 4.5 years now. We've actually just booked a trip back to Greece for a month and leave at the end of August; excitement! We haven't been back since the big trip a few years ago. SO looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to the actual flights - British Airways, my fave airline and the plane food - I'm weird like that. And we'll stop in London for a day of shopping on the way back, squee!

For the past few months I've been doing a lot of freelance graphic/web design work so it's been busy and a little stressful. I'm learning new ways of creating sites though (using CSS and certain CMS's). Once I fully learn these new techniques, I may focus more on web design since that seems to be most of the freelance work that I get. My personal website needs to be updated badly but I'll do that once I get a few more CSS sites under my belt.

Running is my new passion. This time last year, I started to run to and from work (to save on bus money and get some exercise). I could barely run 1k without stopping; but slowly I progressed. In Oct 2009 I did a Run for the Cure 5k race with some of my gal cousins; so much fun! The whole racing atmosphere kinda sucked me in and I started to get motivated to do more races and to run further. I ended up signing up for a 10km race on Jan1, 2010 and trained on my own through the winter. I ran it in 1hr 8mins.



Next, I decided to join a 3 month 10k clinic. The clinic just ended last week and we all did our goal race which was the Times Colonist 10k. What fun it was to run with over 13,000 people! Tony and I ran the whole thing together and our time was 58min 39sec (I beat my Jan 1 time by almost 10 mins!). I also signed up for a half marathon clinic starting in June which Tony is also signing up for - I got him addicted to running too! The goal race for that is the Royal Victoria Marathon (but the half) on Oct 10. Can't wait! We'll have to continue to train while we're in Greece since the race happens less than 2 weeks after we get back 0.0 I find I've been eating a lot more since I started running. You have to make sure you eat a lot of carbs for energy and protein for your muscles. Even though I pig out now, I guess the running keeps the metabolism going so it's all good.



Also, a couple of my good friends are having babies. My friend Cherry just had a boy and my best friend is preggers. This is interesting for me. I've never really been a kid person and not sure if I see myself having a kid at all. But I'm curious if seeing my friends with babies will change my point of view? I think Tony would like me to have more of an open mind when it comes to this, we'll see.

I'm heading to the salon tomorrow and may come out with a lighter shade; I feel like a change from my dark brown hair but I'm too scared to do it myself (I actually want to keep my hair on my head and not fry it off with some over-the-counter bleaching product).

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

It's Snow Time!

Well, the snow is gone now but I thought I'd put up a couple pics that I took from my window at night. They turned out kinda neat!



Sunday, October 12, 2008

Fall

In Sept, I moved into a little attic suite. It's great having my own place and being able to decorate however I want. The walls were a depressing gray/blue when I moved in so I painted it white and caramel. I can't really have people over though because it's a bachelor and I don't have room or even a table! But it's perfect for me plus my big kitty; he likes to go out onto the patio or look out the window to see the pigeons in the trees. Here's a couple pics: The office section and the kitchen with door out onto a little patio.



The nice thing about living there is the location; just a couple blocks away from Dallas Rd. A few weeks ago, the SnowBirds were doing an air show so I walked to the water and took some pics of all the people gathering around to watch.



Tony and I went to a Home Show and saw Colin and Justin from "Home Heist." They were entertaining and hilarious! Aren't they cute?



My parents and I went to see Rick Steves do a talk about his travels and tips; now I want to go to Europe even more! I can hardly wait to go again! Probably not till summer 2010 though :(. Next trip on my list is Hawaii - hopefully this Spring?

That's it for now!

M

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

New Art Blog

I started a new blog specifically to post some of my drawings and graphic art. So if you're interested, take a look! http://artofmichelle.blogspot.com/

So far there isn't much but hopefully I'll be posting more regularly, we'll see how that goes!

M

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Summer Already!?

Oops! Haven't posted in a while. Life just isn't as exciting as it was the last couple years.

In the last post, I mentioned about buying a condo - ya, no. I did my research and found that Victoria and many other Canadian cities are in a real estate bubble and I believe the prices will come down in the next couple years, so that's on the back burner. I've been looking for a place to rent instead. I was browsing Craigslist about a month ago and saw a place for rent in a great location which was very affordable so I went for a viewing and ended up getting it! It's a cute little attic suite in a big character house; perfect for one person and it's just a block away from Gonzales Beach. I move there Sept 1. I'm sooooo looking forward to it! I ordered a bike too (a beach cruiser) ; I'll bike to work on good days and bus it in the bad weather (I'm sick of driving to and from work everyday).

Capoeira is no more. We took lessons for about 3 months and found that we just couldn't commit the time. Most of the Capoeiristas went AT LEAST 3 days a week for lessons and it was a way of life for them. We just weren't into it enough.

Tony just finished his Network Technician program and applied to a few Co-op jobs for the summer to gain experience. He ended up getting a real job (ei: not Co-op) with a small growing IT company. They set up computer networks and digital telephony systems for various companies. This is great because they'll be training him all summer and then when he goes back to school, he'll be working there part-time. He has about 2 or so more years of school left. Below is my dad and Tony working on his final project. My dad created the casing for it and helped drill holes and things and Tony put all the circuitry, wires, bits and bobs, and programming altogether to create a ridiculously powerful amp. It even has neon lights in and it looks sooo good. The teacher kept wanting to buy it from him so he could show it to future classes.



I'm still animating and creating art for various video games at work and I love it. It's been extra busy the last month and will be all summer. There are a few titles on the go. There's one game for the Nintendo DS that came out in May called Teenage Zombies (below) that our studio did. It was kind of exciting when it came out because every aspect of the game was thought up and created in our studio (Usually we get outsourced work from other companies). Anywho, check it out if you have a DS it's pretty fun (a puzzle type game).


This weekend has been sooooo hot! I love it!! FINALLY!!!! What horrible weather it had been in June (or "Juneuary"). Tones and I had to get some much needed rays so we had a picnic on the rocks near Gonzales Beach. I am now sunburnt and sore but it was great and worth the redness! I have been missing Greece soooo much lately and this weather slightly makes up for not being there.



M

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Poor Neglected Blog

I haven't been updating my poor blog at all lately. I look at it once in a while to see what I was up to last year but that's about it. Well here's an update on how life is now:

I'm still with Tony of course and he is in full-on study/homework mode for a Networking Technician program this year and then he'll go into Computer Engineering for about 4 more years, that's the plan anywho.

I'm still at the animation studio and recently got hired permanently! I'm happy because I've been freelancing since I graduated, so now, having a permanent job takes away the stress of always having to find the next contract. (Well, I guess in Greece, it was permanent but I had to come home eventually!)

Since I have some job security now, I've been toying with the idea of buying my first condo this summer! I'm saving up big time and hope I'll have enough for something, although Victoria is a freakin expensive city to get started in. I may do halfers with my bro too, that's another idea. We'll see!

Tony and I have been taking Capoeira classes 2 or 3 times a week and they are deadly! It's a crazy workout but it can be frustrating at times. We are still some of the newest members so we have to really work our butts off to get the moves down.

I take Greek lessons on Wednesdays and it's coming along well. I've learned so much from the class and Tony helps me with my homework. I try to get him to talk to me more in Greek but I seem to do more Greek talking than he does (he always has to repeat or slow his speech down so I can understand - which must get annoying!)

That's about it for now!

M