Starbucks has the best customers.

Working in the service industry, you can sometimes get caught up in the negative stories you’ve had with people. But recently, I’ve encountered a number of great customers who have reminded me just how easy it can be to improve someone’s day.

One group of customers we have is the biker guys. They come in later in the evening wearing head to toe leather, and hang out on our patio with their coffee. One of them, (who when I first met him had long, wavy, light brown hair, and has since cut off his mop in order to donate it to the cancer society), always looks out for us girls around closing time. Him and one of his friends usually help us put the patio away, but they also watch out for sketchy guys that may come in. The other night, he waited outside until one of those mentioned ‘sketchy ones’ left.

Another example is when the photographer who supplies our store with the photographs that hang on the walls came in and we started talking about his profession. We were talking shutter speeds, tripod position, camera brands, and how to make water maintain its flowing motion in a picture, which apparently has to do with the shutter speed. When I told him that I’d be taking photography next semester, he gave me his card and encouraged me to call him with any questions or advice.

My final example of meeting a great person (but not the last one I could talk about) is when one lady came in, got her coffee, and then a minute or so after she had left, came in and calmly said, “I’m sorry, but can I ask you a favour? I’ve just lost the diamond from my ring.” The diamond she had lost was a full carat in size. We immediately began to search. When we came to the garbage in the condiment bar, which is directly under where she had fixed up her coffee, there was no turning back. We put gloves on and searched. After she left I kept looking, but her diamond was never found. She showed up a few days later with a hand moisturizing kit for me, thanking me for something anyone would have done.

Good people are everywhere. I sometimes forget that. These stories are the vary reason I love working with people. It’s true that many times I’ve been disappointed by someone who is unbelievably rude, but for myself, I think it’s better to focus on the great experiences I have.  With this shift, the world seems a little bit brighter.

Not for the squeamish.

from The Winnipeg Free Press website

This Friday, Winnipeg will host the travelling exhibition, Bodies...The Exhibition. It's like an art gallery but instead of canvases and sculptures, there are real human bodies and body parts. All the skin is removed so you can really see what lies beneath the surface.

As stated on the Winnipeg Free Press article,"The Exhibition consists of 13 full, skinless corpses in lifelike poses and nearly 200 additional organs and body parts, preserved and solidified through a process commonly called plastination." 


This is a picture of the corpse they have appropriately named the conductor. I can't decide whether i'm creeped out, intrigued, mesmerized, or just plain scared.


I once sliced my hand while washing dishes. When I looked down and noticed the blood, I froze. Then, when I finally soaked up the blood with a washcloth I looked into the wound and saw white tissue. I almost fainted. To be honest, I didn't get very much better while the doctor at the walk-in clinic stitched me up. Although that could be due to the fact that he said, "hmm, I haven't done this in a while," which would of course inspire trust in his abilities.

Heart with pulmonary veins
from The Winnipeg Free Press website

My small introduction into what lies "beneath the skin" was traumatizing enough, I'm not sure how I'd handle standing a foot away from a skinless body. Yet I couldn't help but stare at this picture trying to decipher what exactly I was looking at.

The exhibit will be here until January 9, 2011. And being that we're only the 5th Canadian city to show Bodies... The Exhibition you may not want to miss your chance to view these cadavers. I can't think of a creepier thing to do on Halloween, can you?


Whenever such a shocking attraction visits a city, controversy is bound to pop up. This exhibit has been banned in other cities because documentation is not available for where the bodies and body parts actually come from. They are said to be unclaimed bodies of men and women from China. The controversy comes in because accusations have been made that some may have come from Chinese prisons.


For more on this exhibit, see the Winnipeg Free Press article. I think the controversy has only just begun.

Macmillan App

Strategy in an advertising and/or public relations campaign has never been more important than it is now. In a distant past, for example 2005, you could run an ad during a prime time show that has a high viewership and project that you would hit a huge number of people.

Flash forward to current day, 2010, and we are faced with fragmentation. Gone are the days when posting an ad in a stationary position would hit your target audience. With so many people having the ability to take their lives with them, due to the capabilities of their mobile devices, it's no real surprise that companies have now found a way for people to take ads with them every day.

A lot of us use apps on a daily basis. What's the weather like today? How do I get there? I have to facebook that! What's my bank balance? What does this word mean? The fact that finding this information is so easy with the use of apps is, in my opinion, the driving force behind companies putting their names on apps that provide a service for us, with the hope of advertising directly to us without making us feel like we've been intruded upon.

Macmillan has an app called Macmillan Dictionary. And I don't know about you, but I hate being caught unaware of what a word means and how it's spelled. This app allows you to check spelling, look up word meanings,  look up common words, test your vocabulary, and listen to the pronunciation of the word.

Someone who would find this app appealing and beneficial would most likely be a person who reads, and possibly buy books. And what better website to make your purchases on than the one that carries the trusted name of the company that checks your spelling, vocabulary, and pronunciation every day?

I think apps like this one are a great idea and opportunity for all parties involved. First, the company who sponsors the app is getting their name out to the public in an intimate and unobtrusive way. Secondly, the people who use this app are getting smarter by the second.

What will this blog be about?

Well, this blog will be about more than just me. It will be about how I interpret things I see, hear about, and experience.

I think we should all have a voice and a platform from where we can discuss and analyze issues and concepts.

Writing helps me to better organize my thoughts, and it also helps reveal opinions I didn't know I had. I look forward to what revelations will inevitably come from documenting being me.