Maisquared

I’ve moved

maisquared — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:28:51 +0000

You can find me at maisquared.com! Thanks!

Go there not here

maisquared — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:21:59 +0000

Maisquared

Colorgenics.

maisquared — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:03:10 +0000

Name: mai
Date: 7/29/2009
Colorgenics Number: 26015437

You are feeling exhausted, worn out, drained. You feel that far too much is being asked of you but you still want to overcome these difficulties and establish yourself despite the effect such an effort seems to have on you. You are a proud person, assertive most of the time, but at this particular moment you are acting as if you have become resigned to the situation. What you need is some tender loving care – a gentle pat on the head (or maybe a ‘kick-up-the backside’) and then you’ll be raring to go.

Recently you have been experiencing considerable mental anguish and turmoil. You are bored and discontent. Nothing seems to be going right for you. Even your relationships aren’t working out and you don’t quite know which way to turn.

In spite of the fact that you believe that your hopes and ideas are realistic, it is hard for you to accept that your needs and desires are misunderstood by almost everyone within your sphere of influenceand there is no-one to turn to or rely on. Your pent-up emotions and inherent egocentricity make you quick to take offence, but as matters stand you realise that you will have to make the best of things as they are.

You are feeling trapped by the situation as it stands at this time and what is more, you feel powerless to remedy it. You are stressful, angry and disgruntled. You feel that everything that you try to do to change the situation is thwarted and your hopes and aspirations all seem to be receding into the ever distant future. You have reached the state where you now doubt whether your dreams will ever be achieved and this is not only causing mental stress but heartache. You need to get away from it all – you need to have time to think, to recuperate, to be able to make your own decisions.

You are trying to build up your own position and you resist all external influences. You insist that you are your own person and you will not tolerate any outside interference. Decisive and proud, you are true managerial material.

Goldenuniverse

My friend took the test and I did it too and my friend has some of the same paragraphs in his test too but whatevs. This is pretty accurate of what is going on in my life right now..weird. Take it, does yours describe you accurately or not?

Austin bleet up tomorrow! w00t.

Better late than never! 20sb Blog Swap!

maisquared — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:12:31 +0000

I love doing these things!! Lanette and I decided to do stories on our respective cities to clear up any misconceptions and to give people insight on our wonderful cities.

——

First – I’d like to send a big thank you to Mai for participating in the Twenty Something Bloggers blog swap and for agreeing to let me guest blog.

Second, I apologize for the readers looking for a music-related post, but I am excited to have a chance to showcase a place that’s gotten nothing but bad press in recent years. It’s a place where people head to make money. A place most people–even those who have been here 15 or 20 years–still don’t consider “home”. It’s a place that supplies a good part of the world with the energy they need to power their homes, cars and places of work. Where is this place? Fort McMurray, Alberta – home to the world’s second largest oil reserves.

What do you know about Fort McMurray? Well, if you paid attention to any of the media through the Obama/McCain election, you probably think it’s a place full of greedy, environmentally-unfriendly rednecks who want nothing more than to rape and pillage the earth for the sole reason of padding their own pockets. And if you think these things, I’m glad, because that means I have a chance to tell you a different story.

My journey to this city began in April 2008 when I left another beautiful part of Canada – the Okanagan region of British Columbia (full of mountains, lakes and gorgeous weather). I flew up on my own, leaving behind my boyfriend, condo, dog and parents, for a job at a large Canadian oil company. Did I come up solely for the money? No, I can honestly say I didn’t. My last job wasn’t providing the experience or mentorship I needed and based on my last 15 months with this company, I’d say I’ve found what I was looking for.

Thankfully, I started working in the Communications department with a girl who was enrolled in the same Communications-Public Relations degree program I took between 2002 and 2005. Shortly after arriving, she introduced me to some of the greatest people I’ve ever had the chance to know - highly educated, awesome personalities and significant career aspirations.

But wait, you thought it was all drugs and prostitution right? Well, I’m not about to tell you Fort McMurray is Wonderland. Of course there are drugs and homelessness and crime. But, I ask you to show me a place in North America that doesn’t have all three. There are “bad” parts in every small town and big city across this continent. Fort McMurray is no different. If you really want to look for trouble, you can find it in every urban, suburban and rural pocket.

What else do I love about this place? For one, the sun is up at 3:30 in the morning from June to August and it’s still daylight at 10 p.m. In fact, near the summer solstice, it’s daylight until around 11. You see tinfoil , thick blankets and “black out” curtains in the bedroom windows of most homes. During the summer months, I have to push my bedtime back to 11 just so I can get to sleep.

I love that I can take my golf clubs to one of three golf courses in town (two of which are beautiful!) at 6 p.m. and get a full 18 holes in. And, while I’m on the course, I can see the foxes chasing one another, or basking in the sun atop the lip of a fairway bunker. Or, at the driving range, I can see the blackbear on the opposite end eating berries before deciding it’s time to lie down for a rest. Then there are the deer, who stand on the edge of the fairway munching on the greenery.

What don’t I love? Well, I don’t love that there was so much explosive growth in the last few years that it strained the local infrastructure and put the cities years behind in trying to catch up. I don’t love the Tim Horton‘s line-ups that are longer than most Disneyland ride lineups. I don’t love going to the local Wal-Mart, or any store for that matter, only to be disappointed because they are so short-staffed they can’t find people to stock the shelves with product. I don’t love that it gets cold here in the winter. And when I say cold, I mean extremely cold and windy (like -40!), sometimes even worse with the windchill.

And what about those big oil companies? The ones who don’t care about the environment or our children’s futures? Well, I can only speak for the company I work for, but I can tell you that I wouldn’t have looked for a job with this company, or stayed with this company if I didn’t believe they were absolutely committeed to sustainable development. We are constantly investing in new technologies to help our operations have less of an impact on the environment. Are we perfect? Absolutely not. Do we think we’re perfect? Absolutely not. But, would we need the oil sands if there wasn’t an insatiable global demand for petroleum products? No.

If you’ve never been to Fort McMurray, I invite you do a little research and if you’re ever in this neck of the woods, put on your PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and come up for a little tour. For those who are interested, I wrote a little more about Fort McMurray here.

Consider this post your personal invitation to Northern Alberta.

Thank you again to Mai for letting me guest blog.

Lanette

Events I’m attending:

maisquared — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:29:03 +0000

Would anyone like to go?

July 22- (tomorrow) going to Cissi’s Market & Wine Bar to celebrate the release of Julia & Julia. Should be fun!!

On the menu:

Dinner (dessert) is served:

Faith Chan, Cissi’s French culinary cuisine trained pastry chef, is preparing complimentary small bites of petit fours.

French Wine Specials: Enjoy discounts on featured French wines by the glass.

Food Demonstration: Chef Faith Chan’s cooking skills on the big screen during a brief food demonstration.

Music: Live music with popular jazz musian Jeff Lofton.

Website: http://www.cissismarket.com/music.html
Swag Bags: Swag grab bags for the first 50 guests

July 24- (rents are in town) but I’m going to try to coax them to see Drew Smith with me at Momos!

July 26- Electric Aquatic Club? Maybe? My ‘rents are leaving today and who knows when that’ll be! The Ark of the Setting Sun…some boat riding, drinking, photoboothing.

July 28- My friend Kyle from Australia is in town..gonna take him all over!!

July 29- Austin Bleet-up with Austin Eavesdropper

If you’d like to attend ANY of these with me, tweet me/comment/message me. The more the merrier!

‘Rents are coming to towwwnn

maisquared — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:13:51 +0000

My parents are finally making it out to Austin for a weekend hang out. Sat-Mon. hmm…how to keep the ‘rents entertained? Here are some of my ideas

Curras
Walk along SoCo
Barton Springs (my mom hates swimming in the cold haha)
Get sno cones
Hyde Park Bar & Grill
Get dessert at Quacks
Dimsum @ Shanghai
Ikea/Wal-mart (haha)
Barton Creek Mall

They’re going to help me paint my room too! So that should take like, half a day at most. What other Austiny things should we do? No 6th Street for THEM haha.

Week re-capped

maisquared — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:44:01 +0000

My new goal was to go out and meet as many people as possible and I definitely accomplished that this week! Today is Sunday and since LAST Saturday I’ve gone out every day (with exception of this past Monday/Tues) to a party or to go swimming, what a whirlwind.

Party week started on Saturday when my band played at the Continental on SoCo. GREAT SHOW! I ended up running into this kid who was two years below me in HS. We did Debate, Mock Trial and some other random HS clubs together. I hadn’t seen him in over 5 years and I remember texting my friend and saying, “Hey, this dude in front of me looks EXACTLY like the grown up version of [insert kid's name here].” At the end of the night I got the courage to approach him and ask him if he was who I thought he was, and he WAS. Weirder coincidence is that he works WITH the lead singer in his day job! ha.

Sunday, my friends from Nashville- Pico vs. Island Trees stopped in and did a show at Mohawk. It was the first time I WALKED to 6th st. w00t. They make great music and they’re easy on the eyes haha. Check them out. Naked statue is normally not in the band haha. The boys were in town for less than 10 hrs but we did get in a swim at Barton Springs. Next time, more happy hours & sno cones!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, I continued to unpack my life and reorganize..it was tough. Honestly, Monday and Tues were pretty forgettable. I didn’t get in until late on Tues but that’s because I was working..spending nights at Fed-Ex Kinkos are not the best time, but often necessary. I don’t work regular hours if you didn’t know.

Wednesday I tried to go to the Castle Party. It would have been epic. My friend Adam and I were stoked on the following activities: “karate black belt demonstrations, participatory drum circles, an exotic reptile collection, sleight of hand tricks, international mohawk coiffeurists, bungee lessons, aqua slides, culinary entomologists, medieval weaponry, and a world-class car collection” Bear Gyrlls in da house!??!?! Unfortunately, it was a royal MESS. Hundreds of people were pissed. That is an understatement. I picked Adam up at 6:30 and we drove there to avoid long lines at the free shuttle pick up points. The castle party was an hour away, doors opened at 7, we knew we’d be late but we RSVPed over a week in advance and were sure we’d get in. WRONG. FAIL. and FAIL miserably. You can read about all the problems experienced in the article above but I was on the last shuttle they let in, we got to the gates and were then turned away. People who walked a mile or two from their parking spot to the castle were also turned away (you couldn’t get into the castle on foot)…BAHHH. Ended up at The Ranch, drinking FREE Dos Equis and listening to Miley Cyrus..AHH

Thursday..Yelp Party. Way more successful than the Castle Party..I had to wait in line for an hour to get into the VIP Reception but I actually made it INSIDE. Met up with my new friend Christine. I met her at SXSW at a house party that my friend Alix! told me about. Finally reunited. We had fun, we ate some free Mama Fu’s samples, free Maker’s Mark & Lonestar and *drumroll* free cupcakes from Delish!! Photobooth by Annie Ray! I love Annie Ray and have wanted be in her famous photobooth photos and I was!! There was a fashion show with a drag queen+ burlesque. Met a lot of Christine’s friend and it was nice. Another goal of meeting new people accomplished.

I left the burlesque early to catch Nightmare of You at Emos. GREAT SHOW! Got hit on twice by older men and one dude bought me my merch as I spent money on shots for the band and I..HAHAHA. Weird. I was soo excited for this band. I’ve become jaded. New bands don’t get me excited, old bands don’t get me excited. I made myself get excited for this show and even though were were less than 50 people at this show, I had the time of my life. This band ruled my life in college and I’ve seen them in crowds of hundreds and though this was a more ‘intimate’ show, it really made me remember how much I used to love going to shows and buying merch and talking to the band without overthinking it.

Friday- Went to Barton Springs AGAIN w/ Christine and her friend Kevin. It was glorious!! I needed it. It was really nice meeting new people. The rest of Friday night will have to come later though because it deserves a whole new post of it’s own..

Signing out for now..

Somebody hire this kid!

maisquared — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:40:09 +0000

My friend from Bentley passed this along.
A+ for originality.

Pictures of my new apt tomorrow!

moving day!

maisquared — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:21:55 +0000

i’m moving to east austin. people are scared of that neighborhood sometimes but it is really great! great new local restaurants, shops, and people. i’m excited to move. not excited to be paying more rent, hopefully this new place and roommate are worth it! she’s already annoyed me a few times…

moving is tough. as you can see i’ve stopped during in the middle of the process to blog. procrastinate?

anyone else think that MJ’s son looks like he belongs in a Children of the Corn movie?

Dish.

maisquared — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:31:52 +0000

I’m planning my trip to NYC. Gonna make stops in Boston & Albany. I’ve also been thinking about what to feed my homies when I get there. Here’s my dilemma: I HAVE NO IDEA! I only really know how to make casseroles pretty well, everything else I experiment with. Usually they turn out great but I really am not a gambler when it comes to feeding other people! In college, each of my roommates took on a day to cook. Mine was Wednesday for a full year. Things I remember making, casseroles, casseroles, casseroles and more casseroles. On occasion I’d make homemade raviolis or vegan sloppy joes (which were always a HUGE SUCCESS).

What are your signiture dishes? I’m an expert at cooking for one person (with a lot of leftovers!!), but what are good meals for groups of 5-8 people. What do you like to cook when guests come over or bring to potlucks? Also, I don’t eat poultry or red meat, but can cook a steak! But, that’s not very economical for a girl on a budget haha. I want to have some casual dishes in my arsenal as well as some fancy ‘special occassion’ meals to whip up as a way to show my appreciation.