where does the good go

finally, a new blog entry.

I spent most of last week taking late nights at work and working from home and working on the weekend to finish the web stat report. It was a much longer process than I had expected, but usually when things are relatively easy - just merely tedious and require a lot of work - they take up quite a bit of time. Needless to say I got it done, and presented the highlights during the HIV and AIDS strategy group meeting today. I'm not really sure how much people cared to hear about the web statistics - I mean that kind of stuff really has to only interest people like me. Like ooh, we would so obviously benefit from RSS feeds for the campaign pages and we should really be properly marking up our html image tags so that we're indexed more by google, and gasp, people aren't navigating the site as much as they should be so lets conduct some user testing in order to enhance the navigation. Not terrific insights I know, but ... uh...yeah. My brain is officially dead from web stats.

Anyways, tonight was a nice end to that shoot-myself-in-the-foot fest.

The EAA organized an outing tonight for its HIV strategy group members and the staff. We went first to a museum that was holding an exhibit on Martin Luther's works. The museum was across the lake, overlooking with this fantastic view. It was very modern and posh, and we had wine and snack type things outdoors while waiting for a worship to begin. Once it did, we went into the museum (hey - its a Lutheran service and it was in French and my mom said not to join a cult, and since Catholicism is a pretty big cult I'm not really sure where her standards are, so I'm assuming I'm best off just not converting to any religion for the sake of her sanity). Anyways, this museum (who's name right now completely escapes me - starts with a B) has original manuscripts and first editions of books and various other artifacts. Breathtaking. The kind of things you only learn about in school but never actually see. And to see it, after feeling so detached, and never really giving it the appreciation it deserves, suddenly you're face to face and it actually exists.

I'm talking of course about an original Gutenburg bible, first editions of shakespeare and marlo, original manuscripts by Sir Isaac Newton, a page out of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, an original book of the dead, first edition Franz Kafka and Tolstoi and Dostoevsky, a first edition communist manifesto, first edition on the road by jack kerouac, a gift list by queen elizabeth, Dante (inferno), Voltaire, Freud, samuel becket, Goethe, Marco Polo, Marie Curie, Charles Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, The Gospel According to Judas, Neitzsche - the list goes on and on, and I can't even recall them all because I didn't recognize them (though there was this book, with this picture in it, of a rhinoceros hand drawn like he's in armor, that we were shown a slide of in the history of graphic design - there was that book, open to that page, as well). Even as we went to dinner, even as we sat and ordered, we still all talked about the books that we saw, the history in that tiny little museum, the hidden little treasures scattered around Geneva.

Speaking of dinner, we later went to a yatch club (which, apparently was supposed to be members only) to eat and drink. I just got home, just out of the shower, and I'm pretty impressed by how well it at all went. As we were sitting there looking out at the lake at dinner, waiting to be served, seeing the jet d'eau infront of us, boats becoming silhouettes as the sun set - I muttered a bit to myself (and a bit to gilberto) - we're freaking lucky, how the heck did we get here?

Disco Dynamite

b-br-br-break it down now

Took Friday off work as one of my vacation days (leaving me with 17 - not including the days i've taken off for the wedding and christmas).
Purpose: to go see a concert in the mountains
Open Air Gampel - a four day festival in the alps (we think). Alicia, who was down for the week, joined Steph and I on this adventure which could only be properly described via photo blog (no video mon frere's - new camera doesn't have video featured, but it is oh so nice and slr like)

The view from the train ride to Gampel

Some how we missed our stop and wound up in the train cleaning area, or like the train depot or train parking lot or something and we were the only ones left on the train. That was until a janitor dude started cleaning up the train and Alicia, who speaks French, asked him about Gampel. After what appeared to be an informative conversation, Alicia told us flat out that she couldn't understand a word the dude was saying because he spoke some strange swiss german dialect. Fearing that we would be stuck on the train forever, we had some luck when another janitor dude arrived and told us that the train we were currently on would soon be heading back and that Gampel would be three stops away.

There were a lot of scene kids on the train, all going to Gampel. Seeing them made me envious / fee old. We dressed Steph up as a scene kid by giving her my hat and Alicia's scarf. Big glasses were hers originally. So bag lady.

So the concert / festival was in the mountains - this is partial view from the main stage.

Why yes, that is a watering can. And yes, it is full of 1.5 litres of Sangria. And yes the two kids you see infront of you did drink most of it while I went to the bathroom because the first out of approximately 22 guys started to hit on them and they felt that the awkward situation could only be made better by incredibly fast alcohol intake.

Seeing as how we paid nearly 100 francs to see two bands, we decided to check out this band (who opened the day up ) My Name is George. They were quite good and we were not dissapointed. Could have been the sangria though.

Some paparazi photo journalist dude caught me off guard and took my photo so I tapped him and got him to snap a shot of the three of us with my camera. After this Alicia threw a hat on stage. It was not as recieved as the thong thrown previously (not by us) nor by the boxer shorts thrown on stage when the sounds were performing. But, interesting nonetheless.


The Sounds performance - which was well done, enjoyable, they played a lot of my favourite songs so I was happy. My only regret was a) naked guy and b) that I kept taking photos.



Oh yeah, naked guy - everyone, meet naked guy. This dude - who was beside me/us during the sounds - couldn't keep his pants on, couldn't decide if he was going to throw his boxers on stage, seemed to enjoy dancing in the nude, poking us with glow sticks and attempting to flash the band. Alicia intervened when he was getting too creepy, but he took that as an open invite to hit on her. At least he was clothed at this point.

Naked guy encouraged more Sangria (1.5 + 1.5 = 3 litres for 3 people)

Wasting time at the Nokia photo booth because they gave us bubbles and lounge seats and all we had to do was pretend to be thinking of an idea for a cool group shot.



14 year olds masquerading as 17 year olds. That demographic seems to have a tendency to hit on Alicia.


Gampel at night, waiting for Jimmy Eat World.


The crowd durring Jimmy Eat World. The same crowd that started mosh pitting and hard core dancing and squashing Steph to the point of near suffocation / trampling that we got security to pull her out cos it looked like her head was put in one of those vice things - you know where they like squish you until your brains pop out or whatever. But seriously, who the hell gets that rowdy for jimmy freaking eat world? Crazy Germans.


the Jimmy Eat World fiasco encouraged sangria purchase number 3 (1.5x3 = 4.5 litres of sangria). While drinking this batch approximately 6 guys, all with those meter beers in long plastic yellow glasses with crazy long straws like ours - and all in sombreros, came up to us and atttempted to drink out of our sangria bucket. this guy didn't have a crazy long straw like us or the others so he failed misserably. Here is Steph in utter disbelief that so many people can attempt to steal alcohol.

After the concert we decided not to take the bus but to walk to the train station to make it to the train that was leaving in half an hour. when it got down to the wire, we attempted to start hitch hiking as we were a long ways away still. A smart car stopped for us. Seriously. Since we couldn't - obviously - hitch a ride with them, we started to ask for directions when the first and only taxi I've seen since I've been out here drove by. We hailed it down and got a free ride to the train station. No sleeping on benches for us! (plenty of sleeping on the 2.5 hour train ride though)
----

In other news, working hard. Keeping late hours. Trying to keep afloat.
Once next week is over, I'll let you know how its all going.
Like, actually.

I'll be seeing you

Today is Basil's viewing
and I believe
that tomorrow is his burial.

This all feels so surreal. And it's all very quick and sudden.
I wish I could be at home right now, to pay my last respects, to offer a shoulder, to give my condolences.
The past two days has been facebook messages and phone calls and msn and reminiscing and discussion over how ridiculous this all is.

memories keep flooding back.
regret keeps seeping in.
and i'm still shocked. still stunned.
and i'm feeling pretty useless over here.
and i haven't cried yet, but i've been on the verge for two days.
it just doesn't feel real.

and i'm lighting a candle, and i'm keeping everyone in my thoughts, and i know you'll all make it through.


and for good measure, just one last time:
"Rrrrrrr"

see you later, Basil.

Gold Lion

I just found out that Basil, a friend from high school, passed away.

I am stunned.




I can remember how much fun he was in high school, always playing along with that silly long standing joke that we were married but in the midst of a messy of divorce.
I can regret not staying in contact after University started.

Thats all selfish though.
And his death .. his life, deserves more than that.



My condolences.
Rest in peace, Basil.


...this stuff called life, it's just fucked.

Fire Eye'd Boy

$photos = array("photo1.jpg", "photo2jpg", "photo3.jpg", "etcetc.jpg");
$videos = array("shoreline.avi", "fireworks.avi");

function photoVideoBlog () {
if dana == awesome {
print_r ($photos);
print_r($videos);
} else {
dana = dana + 5 cool points;
}
}

photoVideoBlog();

(i don't even care if my fake php syntax is correct)

Photos from last weekend to this weekend:

church in old town

american in french grocery store...not buying freedom fries, i assume.

jet d'eau and view from ferris wheel

jet d'eau at end of fireworks display

(so to end the fette du geneve, they have this insane fireworks show - see second video below)

Video:

Shoreline (while Steph and I were being tourists, we walked out to the Jet D'eau and I took a short video)
Song: Passport Radio - Broken Social Scene

Fireworks (long video)
Song: After Dark (remix) - Le Tigre


In other news, the internet at the foyer still blows, so I appologize again for lack of communication to everyone who hasn't been getting prompt replies and the like. Its a Sunday afternoon and I'm at work because a) I have a ton of work to catch up on and b) because there is no way I could ever write a blog, upload videos and photos, etc while at the foyer.

Still taking donations for a new camera.

Everything is Everything

ok so its been awhile

almost a week - but, (excuses, excuses) the foyer had been out of internet (hence lack of communication people - and yes mom, I do remember you)
right now im writing this at work
because - as usual - typo3 makes me want to kill
that program is excellent army training

so lets break this down, grocery styles - starting from the weekend.

Saturday:

We were supposed to go to Annecy, but we woke up late, or got ready late, or something...anyways we missed the trains and decided against it because it would take too long to get there and we would have like, less than half a day to explore and it just didn't seem worth it. So we shopped (market, manor) and later that afternoon we ('the three stooges' as gilberto adequately named us last night - -steph, me, gilberto) went to the park (by the lake) read, tanned, whatever you do when at the park and its hot out. gilberto went back to the foyer early, and steph and i strolled around, checked out hot air balloons and the like.

Sunday:

Steph and I decided to go to Oldtown, except I couldn't remember how to get there, so we took the tram to somewhere that wasn't geneva. At one point we decided that it was do or die, either we keep going and consider it an adventure - maybe wind up in the mountains - or we get off and turn around. We decided to keep going. Then the tram stopped and terminated its run in the middle of nowhere. Then we walked off and got on the tram going back to Geneva, and somehow walked right into old town. We decided to be tourist and took a lot photos. Wound up at the carnival, went on the ferris wheel, took more photos. Bought candy, walked up to the jet d'eau, took more photos. Went back to the park, read, and tanned and the like. Came back to the foyer where they had a screening of the Simpsons because someone had downloaded it and got access to the projector.

Monday was work.

Tuesday I wanted to kill my computer or the internet or the developers of typo3. I spent close to 7 hours trying to get an extension to work, only to have it work partially on one browser but not at all on another. Fix one problem and encounter an even bigger one. Fix that problem and find a different one on another browser. It was back and forth between computers and by the end of it all I skipped lunch, tore out my hair and swore off Internet Explorer for the rest of my life, and me and RealURL aren't speaking. Not until it buys me chocolates, anyhow. I ended the day by watching Requiem for a Dream, which seemed suiting as I was thisclose to becoming a full fledged drug addict and giving up my fancy shmancy career as a web designer programmer project manager thingamabob.

Yesterday we (three of us) went to Cafe du Lys after realizing we missed the free concert we had intended to go to. But, in general, yesterday was a big relief compared to Tuesday. I got the language problem on the website sorted (which, compared to realURL was a bigger problem but was more simple to sort out). I bought tickets to see Feist in Geneva (in October!). Steph found a bunch of European tour dates to see Stars. Gilberto made us peanut butter sandwiches. I bought the hat I had wanted from HnM. Gilberto called me emo, I said I wasn't, then he said I was a scene kid and obviously my day was made.

Today its cold, rainy, and I still have a large list of things to do to get the tradeweek website off the ground. But its getting closer to being finished, and however unfortunate it may be, I may just say screw you to realurl and use a bunch of forwarders - which blows, but may be necessary to quickly put the alert out regarding the website.

I have a lot of work on plate - from freelance to tradeweek to just regular type work I should be doing here. I've made two large to do lists which just seem to sit and mock me. I guess if today is rainy, then, after we go to Ikea for dinner tonight (yeah you read that right - welcome to the life of an intern - one dollar hot dogs is where its at) I'll start taking care of all the freelance that just sits in my inbox and mocks me. Stupid internet work always mocking me....but...despite all my complaints about programs and extensions and freaking cross browser bs...I really enjoy this work. I really love doing this all. I've found my niche. And I know that I don't want to spend my life programming and designing and writing css and working in photoshop, but this industry in general seems to be my fit. I know I don't excell at any of the specifics (designing, programming, whatever), that I have a lot to learn, but...I guess I'm passionate about it, and eager to learn, and thats good, right? I enjoy it, a lot..

Pictures and stuff coming soon.
(I don't have a camera any more, mine broke - donate to my 'dana needs a camera to upload photos to her blog' fund)

neon knights

wednesday i had off - not because i was fired like my mom assumed in the email she wrote me, but because it was fette du geneve
consider it the equivalent of canada day, except for geneva, and except for it last ten days, and except for the crazy carnival rides that put our lousy shopping mall parking lot carnival rides to shame.

a video because i'm too tired to explain much more, other than, the lake front is covered in carnival like stuffs and people and techno music (as per usual).

I Want to Hear You Sad

I have been nicknamed "emo" by Gilberto and Natalie.
This is how I found out

**Natlie and Gilberto discussing plans to go to France this weekend**

Natalie: Well you better work it out, because emo **points to me** and Steph thought you were going to Montreaux

Me: Did you just call me emo?

Gilberto: I said I was going towards Montreaux, in that general direction

Natalie: Don't lie, Montreaux isn't even in that direction

Me: Did you call me emo?

Gilberto: It doesn't matter, Steph will come to (name of french city), and then so will emo.

Me: When did you give me this nick name? Are you talking about me?

**laughing**

Natalie: I pointed at you.


Later, when I left my desk to have a meeting with one of our campaign leaders, I came back to see that Natalie had defaced a photo of Frankie and I, placing on top of my head a cut out piece of black paper in the shape of swoop side part bangs. I never looked so good.

It's brilliant, really. I'm not taking it down.

After lunch we watched emo youtube videos.

Anyways, I don't know why Gilberto has decided that I'm emo. I mean, does emo (as an actual music genre) even exist anymore? (if you say my chemical romance I will kick you in the pants) I keep trying to explain that scenesters are the new deal, hippsters, you know. But its like in one ear out the other with them.

But now I'm downloading all that music from first year that reminds me of Shylah and her yellow "taking back sunday" shirt...or was it brand new? and carolines thick framed glasses and wrist bands and the first time shylah try to do side bangs and looked like a boy because only boys were doing side bangs then and when we created dashysm while writing really bad essays late at night and the exploited poster shylah had in her room and going to the dashboard concert in mississauga and seeing say anything for the first time and buying pins off the internet. ... ..

I should stop while I'm ahead.

-----

yesterday was the beginning of fette du geneve - anticipate a picture/photo blog in about 9 days (the celebrations go for 10 days - its like a giant carnival that never stops for a week - and the rides could seriously kick the ass of the crappy carnival rides that we get in mall parking lots)

Also, my camera is dead, broken, never to be used again.
Donate money to me.
For now, I'm using Steph's camera. But, I need a new one.
Mine is seriously out of commission.

One-Eight by Summer

Steph arrived in geneva.
cue photo / video blog

Steph's first night out / second night in Geneva:

Steph and Jo [outside cafe du lys]

Gilberto and Steph at the pre party for fette du geneve (an out door concert followed by confetti and an incredibly short dj set)

Geneva's answer to Rod Stewart [aka, double b's new life goal]

Pretty much, it's cos I'm friends with him.

They go way back.

Video

Ok, so the guy who is performing here is like some washed up 80's pop star or something, I have no clue. But he reminded me of Rod Stewart and Barry Manalow and Hugh Grant in Music and Lyrics. I also think that he might be double b's new icon. I mean seriously, who can wear that outfit and make cat-like dance moves and still have legions of french fans? not many people, thats for damn sure.

Dana Takes Steph to the Squats

See, my mom got mad at me last time I went there, she said I couldn't go back alone.
So I brought Steph.
Hopefully her mom doesn't call my mom.

Skate board graveyard

I really wanted to steal that, but I think if its still there and I somehow come into money/poster board / spray paint / extra time - I'll go back there and make a makeshift poster.

i uploaded all my squat/graffiti photos to flickr - fyi