Oh, if I lived 60 years earlier...

...don't think I wouldn't have these boys posted up in my locker: James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Elvis Presley in their younger days. They are so beautiful!
James Franco portrayed James Dean in a film in 2001, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrayed young Elvis in a film in 2005. Their resemblances are quite starking.

MJMJMJMJMJMJMJMJMJMJMJMJMJ

Not Michael Jackson. But I love him too.

New Marc Jacobs - $100 - Craigslist. I looooove Craigslist!!!

Procrastination Post

Saw Alice in Wonderland and it was neat! Costumes galore :)
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" - Hatter

I have a 1981 Polaroid Sun 660 but I need Polaroid film :( Where can I get Polaroid film?

I have a French presentation and a Swedish quiz tomorrow - both of which I doubt I am ready for.. but I hope I'll survive.

I've been spending way too much time in the costume shop of the theatre at UBC.

I think I'm going to take Italian this summer.

The crazies.. and some thoughts on protesting

The Olympics are here!
I can't believe it, but it's pretty cool.
About 2 months to a few years ago, I was dreading this, because of how insane and crazy it was going to be downtown. But last night I actually was downtown, and in fact I was walking in the core of the insanity, and might I say, I loved it. The feeling of everyone's positive energy, seeing nothing but smiles on people's faces - and of course the obnoxiously loud cheering - made me feel so proud to call Vancouver my home. I mean, how often does this kind of shit happen in your own hometown?
Not very often.

Another thing that is crazy though, are the protesters - those protesting for the homeless situation, the lack of housing, and the general problems that Vancouver is facing now, as well as the money spent on the Olympic Games and the events that are tied with it. I can understand their reasons for protesting, hell, I might have even joined them a few years back, but now they're in a lot of people's black books, and I can see why. They've been protesting for ages, and the group has only grown bigger, but is it necessary for them to ruin a good party? Also, they've vandalized store fronts and the city centre, and even smashed a few windows - aren't they supposed to protest for the sake of the community? How are they helping if they are destroying it? I agree fully with them however, that the government and VANOC has spent way too much money on this. Money that could definitely be used to help with the ever-growing homelessness that is the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver's infamous lack of housing, as well as the recent slashes in Arts funding which I am definitely not appreciating.
But on another note - if you were to think that the Canadian government has spent all of this money on a very large cultural event - then what about all of the money spent by the American government on the war in the Middle East? That not only cost American tax payers, but that also cost many lives.

It's a sad story for protesters, because they end up being the black sheep, though their intentions are for good causes. The things that protesters "protest" are usually those that abide by the law, that are drawn-out peacefully, and do not physically or directly hurt people - but the "radical" protesters then end up being those who cause riots, vandalism, and sometimes even violence. Of course there are the peaceful protesters, which sometimes may go unnoticed. Protests have of course proven to cause change, if not international awareness; I would think China and Iran as examples of great youth movements.

Sometimes I think of protests like wars. Wars do not end on the battlefield, but instead, they end with treaties and agreements - often occurring between some important leaders, a piece of paper, and a fountain pen.

I really do hope that the protests in Vancouver don't cause physical harm to people, because that, in my eyes, would change everything. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

Protests aside, I think this is going to be a very exciting and awesome two weeks - I can't see why I shouldn't go out everyday to soak it all in!

December Northern Lights: An update on my life which you may or may not care about.

Tjena!

Hm, I haven't blogged since the summer, but I partially blame school for that. I've been so busy the past two months, and I've been spending an unhealthy amount of time in the costume shop at UBC... well, it's not actually a bad place to be, it's probably the only place on campus I enjoy being in. To update, I'm taking three language courses: German, French, and Swedish, and then there's costume construction, and a theatre production course where I get to work on actual shows - thus the spending many-an hours in the costume shop. Oh and it's been raining almost non-stop for the past week or two here. Refreshing, great for skin, but a bit excessive.
(Oh won't us Vancouverites just stop with our weather complaints?)

This December I'm going to visit my friend Christiane in Berlin, and Daniel who's in Reykjavik, learning Icelandic. I've never been to either of these places so it's obviously very exciting for me!! I am becoming quite interested in what Iceland will be like, people tell me there are magnificent geysers, Daniel tells me about caves, and I'm wondering if I will get to see any Northern Lights! What a breathtaking winter that would be!

I know I will not want to leave Berlin once I get there... there's just so much I'd like to see, but I'm only going to be there for about four days. That's ok though, I'm thinking about living there next fall and do some language assisting for English, and then try to find a really concentrated design school, and I want to check out the film and theatre industry there, and improve my German of course. If only the grammar would make sense to me.. like cheese in macaroni and cheese.

Yes, I'm somewhat trying to plan out my life.

And this post isn't really opinionated, but more self-indulgent.

I'll try to be more interesting in the next one.

When customer service seems a little too frivolous

Today I saw something that really made me think about the importance of customer service, or rather, the un-importance of customer service. I was shopping with a couple of friends and we were in a clothing store (which will not be named) at the cash register ready to pay, when one of my friends spotted a little notice they had. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was something along the lines of: "We have heard your feedback, and now we have a new 3-customer maximum policy. This means that if there are more than 3 customers lining up at a cash register, we will call another associate to open a new cash register for you". Wow. Just, wow. For half of a split second, I was slightly impressed, and then afterwards, I just thought it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

Now before I go off into my rant, I just want to say that I have been thinking about the levels of customer service that I have seen, that I have worked with, and have had to show at a workplace, and over time I have been thinking about the "importance" of customer service, moreso recently than before. To be upfront and honest, I'm starting to think that it's getting a little frivolous. Sure, there's money to be made, company reputations to uphold, and some sort of customer/client/company loyalty maintained between all of that, but honestly, I think the time and the money and the effort could be better spent elsewhere.

I used to work at a restaurant for almost a year, and before that I worked in retail for a year, so I've seen my fair share of customers and the variety that walk in and out of the door. What really got me about the customers in these industries were the ones who would complain. I know, I might just sound like a bitter ex-employee ranting about customers, but if you think about it, does it really matter if your plate isn't the same temperature as your food, or if there are deodorant stains on a nice shirt you just tried on (which probably came from your armpits anyway)? Because really now, the food will just pass through your body in a matter of hours, and you will most likely launder that shirt if you were any normal person who washes their clothes once in awhile.

Even tonight, I was having dinner with my parents at a Japanese restaurant, and this woman at the next table sent back her Coke or soft drink of some sorts because she said something about how the restaurant likely used the fountain to serve pop, and that it must have been mixed up with another soda. I didn't know exactly, but she spent some time telling this to a server and obviously he had to refill another one for her and make sure it wasn't mixed up or whatever. Yes ok, if you get a weird drink mixed with another one, then fine, but still, even that bothered me because of all the time and energy that was spent on it instead of on other tables.

My argument isn't exactly the most concrete though. I still like to tip servers generously for their time and service, and can see when there is "bad" service or "good" service. But to be honest, I would rather shop somewhere where I could just look on my own, and ask for help if I wanted it. I would much rather pay less to eat somewhere where the server spent the least amount of time at my table, and just served us great food while I might have a nice meeting with a friend. Why would I want to concentrate on the details of his or her wine knowledge, or whether he or she gave me a steak knife 57.09 seconds before my meal came?

Altogether though, maybe we shouldn't even bother with good or bad or "exceptional" service. We can just have "service", that is good enough to get your food served, your clothes bought, and maybe your hotel room booked. This extra time and energy to ensure that you have a "wonderful, exceptional, pleasant, and memorable dining/shopping experience" could be used in much more useful ways. Even as a customer, why would you put yourself in high expectation of a restaurant or a retail establishment in the first place? So you can ensure your salad fork is chilled? Your pantsuit pressed with the right creases? I'm looking at this, and then next to it, I look at places in the world where they probably never even heard of such things as chilled salad forks. Why the hell would you chill a fork? I look at places where no one even wears pantsuits, and where no one gives a damn whether there are stains, wrinkles, or holes in the clothes they wear. How did the world move apart to such far ends of the spectrum? How did we human beings get to this point? What happened to the basic needs of survival? How did we become so f***ing selfish?

This argument remains unfinished, because there are many other examples I want to share, and it is not that strong or concrete because parts of what I was taught in the service industry still linger in me, even as a customer. But since I am still a customer and have worked in the industry, I can say this much: No, the customer is not - and should not be encouraged to - think that they are always right.

So little time, so little money

I finally have job!! I've been working in North Vancouver for a few weeks now to earn some long-overdue monies! Although after my first paycheque I spent a good amount of it buying things I've been wanting over the year... but I'm very determined to save it for next year.. when I will hopefully go to Europe to do some teaching (assisting) for English. I was always thinking of going to France and doing it, but now I'm taking German again in summer school and I'm thinking maybe I could go to Germany instead? Or do one after the other...

Either way, I have to save a s***load of money for it. To be even more ambitious, I still want to go back to Switzerland in December, and at the end of August I was thinking of going to New York and Montreal, and in February (while the Olympics are here for two weeks) I was thinking of going to Peru or somewhere in South America. Am I crazy or am I crazy? From the looks of it, I think I might just stick to Switzerland in December and then France/Germany next September. Sometimes I wish my family would somehow win the lottery and then I could do all of this. But that would be the dream of mine and almost everyone else's (winning the lottery, that is).

Keep working hard people, hard.