Brennan's Life

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

2017 in review

What a great year. Overall, 2017 was the year I really grew, even though a lot of things stayed the same. I thought I would share my favourite photos from each month, highlights from what was a very eventful, travel-filled year.

January

A wonderful walk with my beautiful mother shortly after New Year's Day. We had a wonderful time.

That time I accidentally painted a 'meat tree,' with witch and tombstone at a paint night instead of a tree that said 'Enchantment.' (Maybe just not the right kind of enchantment?)

February

Teaching Alex to ski was an amazing moment for me. Such a fun adventure as a couple! We have already gone skiing once this season, more to come!

Alex and I filmed our first cooking video! Hard to believe it was almost a year ago!

March

Liz and I went to see Chris Boti for what must be the third time...it was just as good as always. No members of Guns 'N' Roses there this year in the crowd, unfortunately.

April

Anne, our VP Ivan and I raised $1,000 for our hospital. I definitely need to up our game this year, and raise more! :)

Tried the unicorn frappuncino. It was disgusting.

Liz and I visited the McMichael gallery. Here she is painting her latest masterpiece for a collection.

May

A very good friend night out with Karl and Danny...where I did some karaoke and they watched.

U of T shaker at Wonderland...a great event as always.

June

Sarah, Liz and I go bouldering.

Pride 2018

Liz, Heather and I go a-wine-ing. They both bought a lot of wine, and we discovered champagne in a can.

July

A giant duck visited us on Canada Day.

Alex, Tyler, Tammy and I went to Denmark, then Sweden. A trip of a lifetime. Met new family I didn't know I had!

We visited the ABBA museum in Sweden and saw some scandalous things.

August

Reconnected with a great friend from high school in Stockholm...who now is a great adult friend! <3 p="">

Let's go to the Ex!

September

My first real LGBT wedding...was beautitful.

Ran a 5K with work peeps.

Volunteered with this fantastic group of people and made some new communications friends with the Invictus games. Also got to have Prince Harry walk right by me.

Also got to hear Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams play together. That was something.
October

That time Alex and I did two costumes for Halloween

November

Said goodbye to a great friend who went to work overseas. Trish, I miss you.

Toronto Christmas Market with Judy, who came to visit Liz.

December

Christmas....chaos as always!

What a year! Looking forward to 2018 being even better!

Monday, January 01, 2018

2018 Fitness challenge!

I am doing a fitness challenge to get into better shape. It's a 200 push up per day challenge.

Currently, 60 real push-ups, 140 half push-ups. 4:40 mins.

More to come! :)

Monday, December 04, 2017

Interesting topic: Quantum tunneling

So the other day my friend Liz and I were having a discussion about science, and she made a joke about quantum tunneling. While I feel like I understood the basic concept, I suddenly became overtake with the desire to understand more, since the basic concept of quantum tunneling that Liz explained goes like this:

Quantum tunneling refers to the quantum mechanical phenomenon where a particle tunnels through a barrier that it classically could not surmount.

Which, if you understand anything about physics, makes you go 'huh?'

It's like how some particles want to be somewhere in the world, and they go on a bear hunt...because if they can't go around it, they just go through it! ^_^

I had a lot of fun learning about something so fascinating and different. This video was a good intro to it. (Though I read a lot more about wave particles than I ever though I would!)

Monday, November 27, 2017

Reflection: Doubt

I opened up an e-mail from one of my spiritual newsletters (bypassing over the Franciscan deal to buy a Christmas calendar for Cyber Monday) and it had a piece at the end with reflection questions on what I am doubting, and to pray on it. I thought I would share:

1. Where am I experiencing doubt in my life?
My next big move, my next big skill to develop and master

2. What is it that God says about me, as God’s child, within this doubt?
That I am having a very similar experience to many people I know...I am in the good company of high achievers with crossroads in their lives!

3. Write a prayer detailing this doubt

Dear God,

As you know, I have spent many a night, wondering where my life is going, where my talents might be best used. How can I help the people around me grow, to flourish, and for love and laughter to surround them and me, to keep me safe in dark times and good times, to have me watch well the things that need watching, and tend to those who are suffering.

How can I best use my talents? Which one should I choose? Which is right for me? Which will lead me to ruin? How shall I seek things that bring me joy and success and still stay true to You, Your Commandments, and Your Spirit.

I have no answers, and I expect none in return. With an unfailing heart, strong in faith and hope, I shall twist and turn down a narrow path of those seekers that came before me, but in my own way. I seek humility and righteousness, justice and peace.

I hope you take my doubt and recognize I wish to journey towards you in a straight path, to run unfailing, to do things perfectly. It is my doubt that holds me back. I journey further towards you, and ever back.

Sunday, November 05, 2017

TOW: Tools change, but the world changes very little

You know, when social media tools first came out, I had no idea how important they would be.

I can now say that my desire to focus on being an expert on rising marketing and communication tools was a good lesson in how technology works. Kuhn's theory on paradigm shifts worked in real action for me over the last 8 years or so.

While all of that is true, technology can only take the work of people so far. I have spent a lot of time working with a variety of technologies, and I talk to my friends in separate industries, that often have separate tools working for them that do similar things, but work better within an industry paradigm, with their precepts for language and symbols, different than mine, which are often focused on communication than numbers. (It was put especially well by a wedding guest this weekend, when
she said, "You work with Excel? I'm more of a Word girl myself.")

The kinds of tools change, but really, humans create the same communication errors over and over again. And the more we try and build in 'nanny-like' interference in communication tools, especially online ones, the more that the red tape starts to cause interpersonal errors, and suddenly tools are not tools, but masters.

One of the thing I am struck by, is how much people want strong sets of tools to help them organize, and rule their lives, depending on their industry, and yet most people use the first ones they were introduced to, way back when. (Excel, Word, AutoCAD, etc.) It goes to show how far back our biases for some of the worst tools in the world are.

I feel like this is a subject I could write a whole book or perhaps a chapter of a book about, but I'll stop here with a thought: Online tools come with a price to time spent in other ways. Most of the time, these tools can be helpful over time. But they are often extremely labour intensive at the start. And one has to ask if these tools will help, or hinder people, depending on the makeup of the team.

Wednesday, October 04, 2017

Working Volunteering

I recently finished up a great communications volunteer opportunity with several friends and colleagues of mine...and I have to say, it was amazing. The experience I got, the things I learned, they were all very relevant to what I do, day in, day out. I basically got to work volunteer. It was fun.

I found there were some skills I was good at, and not good at. And the fun thing about being a volunteer, is that at the end of the day, you are accountable for your reputation, and not much else. And even then people don't treat you that harshly because hey, you're working for free.

I think in the future I would really like to do more things like this: where I give my time to causes that I enjoy, without it becoming too huge of a burden. I think my challenge is always knowing when to say no, and when to pull back a bit, and to not take everything too seriously.

I learned a lot about myself, and I think that's the best thing that can happen with these kinds of opportunities.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

A year in the life of 33...looking back

You know, this year has been filled with some ups, and some downs, and some in-betweens. I thought it would be nice to capture what I did since turning 33.

Work:

-Me and a team member won a $10,000 grant for a project concept we worked on against 800 other applicants
-I project managed 3 projects over $10,000
-I covered my job and covered my colleague's medical leave
-I pitched a concept for funding
I worked on a very cool communications project, which is almost here! Whew!

Life:
-Went many cool places, this was a year of travel. (I might have to cut back this year for the sake of my budget!)
-Thought a lot about the future
-Made several new friends!
-got to go to Vancouver for work, and managed to visit and reconnect with family that I love