I know - it's an ideological oxymoron.  But hear me out...

So today has been a particularly trying day. It is difficult on days like today to convince myself that I'm in the right place for me....but we know this already. I know that I need to figure out what the big next steps are. Start my own business? Apply for that next job? 

More importantly, how to not lose track of things that are actually important versus the quibbly, stupid things we have to deal with at work.

I've come up with the following mantra (if you will) in order to stay positive....

"It could be worse  - you have seen worse."

I don't know how positive this actually makes me - but it does help to draw focus away from the currently negative things and make me focus on the things that I DO have that ...

I haven’t posted anything in a long time – maybe because I assume no one is reading this, so I don’t feel as accountable to an imaginary audience?  But I think it’s time to put something else out there as I have been feeling kind of down lately and I need to stop thinking negative thoughts and really work on focusing on positives in my life (which was the point of starting this in the first place!):

1)      My job doesn’t suck.  It’s not my dream job either – but it pays bills and actually, is a pretty decent pay cheque.  Plus I’m actually pretty good at this – surprisingly since I always pictured myself as more of a liberal arts, creative person than accountant, but it is honestly shockingly rewarding to have the debits balance the credits, you know?

2)      I’m in the best financial ...

It's been ages since I've written - and I really don't have much of an excuse except that life has been really busy! Which I know is not much of an excuse since every one is busy, but that's all I've got!

What have I been busy with you ask? My new puppy! His name is Finnegan and he is a westie-poo, and he is the most adorable, scruffy looking little white puppy that you ever did see! We've been to puppy classes, then intermediate classes, and it has been the most rewarding thing I have ever done.

I just love this little guy! What a cute little pooper dog, as my friend Jeff calls him.  He is really friendly and generally non-barky, but also fierce when he thinks someone is "invading" the house - sorry mailman!

So between the training of Finn, fixing of Finn ...

I am exhausted today, but exhilarated. I stayed up uber-late, way past my bedtime to start and finish reading "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" last night.

It was one of those amazing books that made you laugh really hard, and cry even harder. There were simply moments of transcendental truism and humanity that even though I knew I had to work today, I just couldn't put it down until I had read to the very last page - even through the book club notes at the end!

My favourite quote though - and I'm citing from memory as I forgot to bring the book with me to work today, is from Juliet Ashton. She is the effervescent leading lady who is a delightfully eccentric author/writer who says: "I like to think that books have a natural homing instinct to fall into the hands of the reader ...

Found this today while stumbling - and I thought it was a worthy read. Not much to say about it - except I should actually really go and do all of these things! I mostly like that this is all about stuff and practices that should be sustainable in the long term.

I also extra like the little hand-written list embedded in the page. Here's a basic synopsis of the five ways, but you can read the actual article on matador.com. I really think I need #3 and #4 the most - how about you?

1. Organize your finances once and for all.

2. Get rid of clutter. No, really.

3. Practice saying no, thanks.

4. Plan less.

5. Say good-bye to gimmicks.

It's finally summer here in Canada, and especially in Toronto, the good old sweltering heat is starting to hit - and it's hard to remember about how much we complained about the cold and snow just a few short months ago. Added to that, this summer we are dealing with a garbage strike in the city - so add stinky to the equation and it makes for a particularly unpleasant few weeks here in the Dot. In an effort to try to rekindle the romantic feelings towards the summer heat, and to try to recreate a childhood memory, this post is all about the ubiquitious summer treat, no, not popsicles, not sno-cones, but the humble freezie.

Perhaps you all may remember the good old freezies that they used to sell at the convenience stores for about 25 cents. Long, plastic tubes filled with delicious frozen sugar water, available in an ...

I love my new neutrogena facewash - I first saw it in a magazine and it had a scratch and sniff sticker - which had me sold. It's their new amazing grapefruit line - it smells like the REAL Fruit, and not the gross sticky-sweet interpretation of grapefruit like in candy!

On this note - When are we going to get scratch and sniff for cyber-space?!?

I read somewhere about this experiment in the states where the scientists were printing off sheets of SKIN - so I am presuming that there is technological capacity for this. But I digress. The point of this entry is to let you all know that it is amazing stuff - plus it has a salicylic acid in it so clears up problem areas right away - they call it "microclear technology" at Neutrogena.

You have to try it - and let me know what you think.

So - this is my first blog entry for my first devhub site - I suppose I should really clarify that for all intents and purposes, this is my first real website, period. So far it's been wonderfully easy to use and modify - even though I'm a complete rookie.

For this auspicious inaugural blog, I am going to obviously have to give a big thumbs up to this devhub site - this is the by far the easiest and most technologically advanced thing I've done for myself since I signed up for my first email address 15 years ago.

Therefore, ***drumroll please*** the very first item on the 'Stuff I Like' list: Devhub.com

If you want a quick and easy way to launch your own web presence, I highly recommend that you take ten minutes, sign up for devhub, and get cracking!

Just click here: http://www.devhub.com ...