I Just Won Lady Gaga Tickets

Posted on January 9, 2013 by GusF

I’m super excited today!

After reading a tweet from my Twitter stream from @SamsungMobileCA this morning, which asked you to retweet for a chance to win tickets to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Ball in Vancouver.

Since I wanted to see her in concert again, and never did get any tickets, I thought what the hell. I had nothing to loose and only good things to gain.

I was super excited when I got a response from them on Twitter letting me know I had won tickets to her show on Saturday. I can hardly wait to see her again in Vancouver. She puts on an amazing show and this monster is excited.

Thanks Samsung Mobile!

Happy 2013!

Posted on January 2, 2013 by GusF

2012 was a year full of change and adjustments. My niece moved from Toronto to live with us as she studied to become a Certified Make-up Artist. I got to get reacquainted with her and see her as a young adult, while learning to live in a small one bedroom place with 2 other people. I also got a new position at work as the Internal Brand Ambassador of Marketwire. A new role that I’m enjoying everyday, even though it has its challenges since it’s a new role within the company.

And now a new year begins!

Normally people would be making new years resolutions and trying hard to keep up with them, but let’s face it over 92% of us will fail at keeping up with those resolutions. Though in theory they are made to help improve us!

I haven’t “officially” made any new years resolutions, I do have some goals I want to accomplish this year. I intend to keep them to myself at this time, but the goals I have are to improve me in my every day life and will be for the better. Baby steps is how I’m approaching them and I have some timelines for each goal I’ve set up.

So here is hoping that 2013 is a great year. I’m looking forward to the changes and challenges it will bring while at the same time continuing to help me grow as a person.

Oh You Intranet You!

Posted on December 12, 2012 by GusF

intranet

With my recent position at my work as an Internal Brand Ambassador, I’ve been working on creating better internal communications as well as training and bringing employees up to speed on the use of social media for their day to day work (and life).

Lately I’ve been challenging myself. Our intranet isn’t where I want it to be and nor where it should be for our company to be honest. I’ve been researching on the internet to get a glimpse into what it takes to have a great intranet. I’ve been to several conferences and listened to many great speakers talk about their intranets and how it functions.

There are service providers out there that help companies get an intranet up and running and I do want to the intranet to be the best it can be. I maybe getting ahead of myself here as I’m working on getting a proposal of some sort in place to share with my boss on how I see and plan to improve our intranet.

Has anyone worked on their intranet within your corporation? Did you have a process in place? What did you see as some of the major obstacles?

I’ll try to document as much as I can to share my knowledge as I go on this road to improving our intranet. Granted I don’t really have the “go-ahead” yet, but as part of my roll I do want to make a difference and how our intranet is perceived and used.

Last 10 Days of MOvember

Posted on November 20, 2012 by GusF

Alright people, I’m a little depressed. No it’s not the weather that is getting me down (though the Vancouver November rain is a tough month to get by), but rather my terrible MOvember donations.

With only 10 day left in MOvember, my donations seemed to have stopped. I started off great on the first couple of days, but since then I’ve had no other donations. With this being my fourth year in participating in MOvember I’m discouraged that my campaigning is failing.Granted I haven’t been campaigning too hard as I didn’t want to bombard everyone with MOvember posts.

My goal was small this year. I was hoping to get at least $200 in donations, but as of right now I’m only at $60.

So this will be the second to last post I’ll be making about MOvember this year. And as such I encourage you to help me out in my donations. To help me out please donate to http://mobor.co/gusf.

To everyone that has donated this year, thank you so much! It truly means a lot to me.

On an up note, as of the posting of this, Canada has raised more than $19.5 million for prostate cancer research. Well done Canada!

Printing a Couple of my Photos

Posted on November 13, 2012 by GusF

So I’ve been wanting to get a couple of my photos printed, but I’m having a hard time choosing which two of them I’ll get done. The prints will be 11 x 15 and will be hung up on the pillars between our windows that span our living room and dinning room.

I’ve figured out where I’ll get them printed at thanks to my interweb connections. I’m torn between the following 4 photos.

What do you guys think would work best? With so many photos to choose from it’s hard to pick just a few.

The Day After Halloween

Posted on November 1, 2012 by GusF

Well it’s done for another year, Halloween has come and gone.

I hope everyone had an awesome few days while you celebrated as an adult and celebrated with your little ones. I saw some great costumes this year and it was great seeing parents also dressed up as they took their kids out around Yaletown last night.

Though my plan to become a human size Yoda never turned out, I was happy to just be at home snuggled on the couch while enjoying some awesome sweet potato soup that Russ made. I always say I’ll get dressed up for Halloween, but never do. Oh well there is always next year

There is one thing I’ll never get about Halloween here in Vancouver. It’s the only time when you can buy fireworks in this city. That’s right, you can’t buy any fireworks during Victoria Day or Canada day here. I don’t see where the logic of having fireworks when it’s fall and there are tons of dry leaves around, granted this year it rained and most of the leaves are a pile of wet mush. I still don’t get it.

Even this morning at 6am someone was letting some fireworks go. Really 6am?!

So how did you spend your Halloween weekend and day? Did you dress up? Did you give out treats to kids?

MOvember 2012 is Just Around the Corner

Posted on October 23, 2012 by GusF

It’s time to start thinking about MOvember again.

MOvember is a month long fundraising event where men from around the world get together to raise money and awareness for men’s prostate cancer. How do they do it? Well they grow a mustache or mo all month long. But this year it’s a little different, we are also raising awareness of mental health issues.

I’m proud to be participating in my fourth year of this great cause. Again this year I join our company’s team called the Marketwire Sysomos Staches. We are proud to be participating this year. Last year our company matched our donations and we raised over $11,000. This year we are striving to beat those numbers and we can only do it with your support. So please help support me this year by donating to me personally or our team.

I’ll be updating throughout November on my progress. As usual I can’t look at myself in the mirror the first few days as I go from having a goatee to being completely clean shaven. I’m nervous as hell, but I know it’s for a great cause!

Hello Vancouver – Eleven Years Later

Posted on October 22, 2012 by GusF

It’s hard to believe, but eleven years ago today, I packed up my computer (2 huge boxes that included my monitor and desktop) and a large luggage full of clothes in Toronto and moved to Vancouver.

An experiment of sorts, I wanted to give Vancouver a try; I wanted and needed a change; and things were just working out perfectly for me that it offered me the chance to move here. With a job working for Essence du Papier at the newly renovated Eaton store downtown and a place to stay with Russ I made the huge plunge.

Though still in the same country and 4 1/2 hour plane ride between us, it was hard leaving family behind. As you see we are close family and are always in touch with each other.

I’ve made some amazing friends here in Vancouver and I have made a life that I’m very proud of. With the help of Russ who has supported me through these amazing eleven years I’ve never been happier.

So thank you Vancouver for being here for me and thank you for allowing me to explore you when I can. You are an amazing city and I’m loving my stay here!

La Perla – Boutique Bed & Breakfast in Guadalajara Mexico

Posted on September 11, 2012 by GusF

On our recent trip to Guadalajara Mexico, Russ and I stayed at the lovely La Perla – Boutique Bed & Breakfast which has a strong connection to Mexican movie stars of the past.

Situated in the heart of the Historical section of Guadalajara, this 3 guest room two storey with roof top Moorish mansion has been welcoming visitors from around the world since September 2005.Decorated with magnificent works of art from local artists, La Perla highlights Mexican artists.

You might be lucky enough to be staying during one of their parties. Some parties they invite local musicians and opera singers to come in and sing. We were lucky enough to be surprised by a visit from a couple of opera singers during our stay and they showed us how wonderful their voices were. An amazing experience I won’t soon forget.

The two hosts, Lars and Cristobal, were amazing. They both made sure that everyone in the house was well looked after and that their stay was enjoyable. They would make daily suggestions on places to visit and where to go. They made sure directions were easy to understand and would even offer to join us on our adventures of discovering Guadalajara. At one point I got food poisoning during my stay and they were kind enough to go out the pharmacy and make sure I had some over the counter medicine as well as made sure I kept I fully hydrated.

The host can also book any side trips you would like and can join you along the way giving you a local perspective of the area. All the main attractions to the historical city are within walking distance of La Perla.

If you are ever in Guadalajara, I highly recommend staying here. You will not be disappointed and you will be well looked after!

I’m Not Gone, Honestly

Posted on July 12, 2012 by GusF

Well hello there world. No I’m not gone, I’m still here honestly. I know I have been fairly quiet on my blog this past month, hell, the last couple of months if truth be told. I do have a reason, honestly I do. You see my new position has got me travelling and keeping me busy over the last 45 days and now that things are finally coming into place I think I’ll be able to update more on here.

I’ll try to keep the content coming. After-all I’ve been to Victoria, Chicago and Calgary recently so I do have things to talk about! So please be patient with me as I’ll try not to disappoint you.