Love is never having to tell the one you love...

My sweetheart and love o' my life arrived home from Grand Forks with some pretty sweet cargo. She and her mom went under the 49th to do some spring shopping and to take a mini- vacation. Though I don't expect it, each time she visits either Fargo or G.F., I am virtually guaranteed a handful of t-shirts to add to my growing collection (which she has pretty much single-handedly started) She outdid herself this time as you can see.

As Heidi showed me the ornaments, clothes, dog toys, books, and shoes (wow, a LOT of shoes) she had purchased for herself, I knew the moment was coming when she would peel open a bag of items she had bought for me. "I felt like texting you at some point to buy me a SpongeBob shirt if you came across one," I said as she rummaged through the plastic bags from Target, Kohl's, and Gordmans. Not long after I said this, Heidi reached into a bag and pulled out the first of many surprises she had in store for me. The first was:

- a Star Wars t-shirt followed by,

- a Spiderman t-shirt then,

- a SpongeBob t-shirt not to be outdone by,

- a Marvin the Martian t-shirt,

and, this last one blew my mind,

- a Kermit the Frog t-shirt

I couldn't help but feel I had just experienced Christmas in April. "How did you know?" I joked as I leaned over and gave her a kiss.

And that's just it, she just knows. We've been together long enough that when the time comes for a gift, simple or otherwise, we can pick up something and know if it will be something the other will like. I can never go wrong if I bring home flowers, bubble bath, cotton candy Jelly Belly's, or Dubble Bubble. That's just comes with the territory of sharing your life with the someone and getting to know what she appreciates (outside of a good "snuggle") To top it off she brought home several bags of Doritos, Lindt chocolate bars, and the best candy bar of all time, the Take 5 (a pretzel covered in caramel, peanut butter, peanuts, and covered in milk chocolate) If Hershey's is smart, only two people know the secret to making the Take 5 and they're not allowed to travel on the same plane together.

Yes, the Take 5 is that good.

As my school year has now wrapped up until fall, my one regret is that I can't hit the halls of Red River College on Monday to show off my new wardrobe; I'll just have to wait until August. Now, there are likely some people out there who may think it's juvenile for a 40 year-old man to be wearing what could be called kid's clothes. I'm okay with that, and so is my inner child. Once my professional life takes hold, there's little chance that I will enter a room for a meeting sporting Kermit on my chest, (though I have to admit, that type of work environment would be fantastic) so I'll make the best of the time I have left to sport my cartoon-ey fashion sense.

The best part of it is that Heidi accepts, encourages, and loves this part of my personality. If I'm lucky, once I've completed college I can work from home and continue to indulge in my taste for colourful tees.

Yes, I love tech-no-lo-gy...

Ahhh, one of my many favourite scenes from Napoleon Dynamite. Today Kip's lyrics serve a sarcastic purpose for me as I haven't been in love with technology the past 24 hours. My computer spent about eight hours trying to upload my video montage to YouTube last night. After this whole process was finally complete, the video portion of the montage didn't appear. The audio came through fine, but a black screen stared back at me.

In an attempt to solve the problem, I sought the help of YouTube proper.

File Size okay? (check)

File format okay? (check)

Greg's patience okay? (somewhat)

YouTube help is set up for more simple problems and there was no mention of my black screen issue. So, my next step was to seek out the help of others more knowledgeable than myself. This being, the Internet forum. I quickly discovered I wasn't alone in my confusion and despair in not having my upload appear as I had intended. Some users even commented that videos uploaded last year suddenly had their screens go black. They were all irked and sounding testy.

One contributor named "ebbixx" seemed to know what was going on and was very helpful to everyone's questions (I hope this guy is getting paid) Apparently YouTube changed something with their coding and he was confident that its engineers were trying to solve the problem. No one has an idea when this might be sorted out.

I've noticed at least one of my classmates from RRC has managed to get around this problem. Her video "Bruises" uploaded just fine. She did a really great job too. Congrats to her and I hope she gets a good grade for her effort!

Twitvid and its plucky little bird accepted the format of my video montage. It took a couple of hours to upload, but it kept chugging away until it got the job done. Thank you Twitvid, you rock! Click the link to check out my montage, "It's A Dog's Life."

Bye for now. I'm off to study for next week's exams. One more week until freedom!

What the heck am I going to do with all my free time? Hmmmm...

Oh yeah, right. My IPP. :/

Sir, would you please follow me...

In our last few P.R. classes before the end of this year, our instructor, Kenton Larsen, has been discussing media interviews with the class: the good, the bad, the other. We've seen the good; (a well-handled interview despite the obvious adversity), an interview with Bill O'Reilly and Jeremy Glick:

the bad; an interview with Tom Snyder and Johnny Rotten, singer of the Sex Pistols, appearing on the show to promote his new project PIL:

and the other, an interview that should have went very bad, but was handled very well considering the interviewee was the wrong person sitting in front of the camera. This clip is from a 2006 BBC interview with Guy Goma after he showed up for an accountant job interview and was mistaken for a commentator of internet music and the future of downloading. Goma's initial reaction as he is introduced is priceless, but he takes up the challenge and does very well considering he's in over his head.

One Year To Remember

I might be getting ahead of myself as the school year is not quite finished (three weeks to go), but this weekend marks a ceremony of a different sort. April 4, 2010, will mark one year of marriage for myself and Heidi.

The year has flown by so fast I should have been awarded Air Miles. Just a few weeks before I was accepted into Creative Communications, I asked Heidi to marry me. After four short months of marriage, I entered Red River College. I didn't know how much at odds these two things would be at times, and many times its felt like I've had to satisfy two partners (no, that's not meant to be a pun).

I've enjoyed myself immensely at the college (classmates and instructors; you're all awesome), but I'm glad that I will have more time for my "real marriage" and give back some of the time that is owed. I've done what I could to succeed in school, now my focus shall soon change to Heidi and my home life.

I love my wife and I hope the best for us in the future; for my next school year and for all the years we shall spend together to come.

Happy Anniversary sweetheart, it's you that I truly love.