I was up this morning till 02:00 copying files from the My Book that I'm selling to iPod boy (DJ) to my new My Book. It's difficult working on less than five hours of sleep.

Anyway, I got to work at what seems to be my regular time these days. Ever since I offered blabber girl that explanation that I put up a humourous picture of Batman up on my glass cubicle wall to stop seeing a number of people walking back and forth, she is attempting to warm up to me. Today, she said that she had saved me a cupcake that curly girl had baked. Curly girl's birthday is tomorrow, but she enjoys drawing attention to her. Proof? She decided to self-promote her birthday by baking up a storm and letting everyone know about this main event. In any event, I thanked both of them for giving me the cupcake.

DJ and I haven't talked since late this morning. I couldn't when I had walked into work, for he was talking to a customer. He broke the ice by saying that the company website had been redesigned.

Actually, I kind of quietly broke the ice. The president's son (PS) had come over to talk to me and was asking me what I was doing. At this stage, I was trying to figure out what files to leave on the My Book that I was selling to DJ. As soon as I had uttered My Book, I saw DJ's head turn. He was kind of curious to see what it looked like and was probably excited to have it in his hands soon.

So, when he first said something to me about his spam e-mail, I walked over and gave him the My Book box with all the goodies. I do keep my electronics in good condition, to the point where I have the original packaging, right down to the plastic bags use to protect all the cables and hard drive.

We talked a bit. He said that he has lost his digital camera cable yet again. He's not great with cables, I've noticed. Anyway, he said that he'd pay me tomorrow. I was fine with that. I started to walk away when he called my name. I came back and he had my money. I thanked him and asked him if he realized that I'm definitely going in the wrong direction, for I now had to put the money in my wallet. He did admit that he had pulled me off the course that I had initially planned on taking.

I worked on odds and ends today. I had to respond to feedback I got about the lack of naming consistency pertaining to the company's branches. As much as I'd like the consistency to be there, it is out of my hands. The person who actually registered the official names of all these branches should have put some thought into this. So, I wrote something polite about this and sent that off to my boss. I then sent him another e-mail, asking if he had found the brochure for me. He called me about five minutes later and thought that he had sent it. He checked his sent e-mail and realized that he hadn't.

I then got a request to find a high-resolution picture of one of our products. I decided to render one of mine, and send two I already had to this person. It's for an upcoming magazine article. I decided to render the image after I had stepped out for lunch.

DJ sometimes goes through phases where he will not invite me to go fetch lunch. I believe this week it is due to PS asking me out for lunch and I said that it's probably not the best week for me to do that. I simply don't want to go out for lunch with PS, because it seems more like work than fun sometimes.

I had to pick up the moocher's parcel, so it was nice to just take a break. I saw this idiot driver who tailgated through a stop sign. I have heard about people doing that, but this was the first time I actually witnessed it. The guy then cut in front of the car in front of me. He then decided to swerve around two cars that were stopped at a red light. He then made a right turn. That was crazy.

After picking up my parcel (I haven't yanked out my photo ID in nearly two years at my local post office, for I'm a regular now... ha), I walked around the small mall and then went to one of my favourite Chinese supermarkets/food courts. Sadly, the tiramisu I loved getting is no longer available. Instead, I got a couple of bubble teas and then drove back to work.

The moocher saw me carrying a package in my hand and knew that I had visited the post office. I handed it to him. He said to come visit him afterwards. I then gave one of the bubble teas to the sales coordinator. That made her happy. I didn't give her the pink straw, for she dislikes that colour. I then told her about the death of my tiramisu dessert cups. She laughed when I said that I was going to drown my sorrows in my bubble tea.

DJ asked for my technical advice, which he quickly switched to saying that it was more technical help. It was regarding his sales software application, which I have never seen before. I basically asked him to copy and paste the URL into the appropriate address section of his application. This suggestions actually worked.

He then asked me about the hard drive, as he decided to copy all his photos to it, which was estimated to take over an hour to complete. Somehow, we got to talking about the colour of the box in which the device came. I basically compared firewire to USB, which got DJ to talk about the technical specs and flash. It was odd. I'm not even sure if what DJ said to me truly makes any sense.

DJ looked at what I was holding in my hand and asked if it was bubble tea. I nodded and said yes, as I was trying to scoop up a couple of tapioca balls. He smiled at me.

The purchaser, DJ, and I all laughed at PS. It sounds rather bad, but PS was literally taking each pay stub he had in his hands and went to deliver it to that person, rather than visiting one row of cubicles and looking for the names of the people to hand out their pay stubs. I laughed exceptionally hard when the moocher looked at what PS was doing and had this puzzled expression on his face.

So, I left just after 17:00 and got a why-are-you-leaving-so-early stare from the accounts payable woman. It was funny. I had to make a comment about that, which got the controller's assistant and DJ add more fuel to the fire. DJ said that I tend to stay here until 18:00 or 18:15 and hinted that perhaps I had something important to attend. I agreed and just left it at that. He kept looking at everything that I was holding in my hands. I said goodnight to everyone and walked outside, saying goodnight to the sales coordinator and her smoking buddy. I had accidentally knocked over the siding that was preventing the door from locking them out. The sales coordinator helped me out by putting it back. PS was out there waiting for me, so we walked to my car and drove off.

The drive downtown was fine. Traffic was light. I drove along Eastern Avenue and noticed that there were a number of TV stations about to do live feeds. I then made the connection about the Hell's Angels busts. One of the guys had a Blackberry, rehearsing what he was going to say on the air.

We got to my regular parking lot just after 18:00. I got the second-last parking spot. We then headed to Quiznos for dinner. The manager recognizes us now. I had a 9" meatball sub and made it a combo. PS had a 9" chicken sandwich and included it as his combo. We chatted. I had Fruitopia for the first time at this establishment. We then left and headed to the Air Canada Centre.

For the first time in quite some time, none of the t-shirts interested me. However, I did pick up a souvenir. I got a Nelly Furtado light stick that flashes and changes colours. I was exceptionally pleased with my $10 purchase.

Our seats were great. Jon Levine and his band opened up the show just after 19:30. It was great how he pounded his keyboard with his fist, palm of his hand, shoe, and so on. It was different and refreshing. He was sporting a short mohawk. All I heard behind me was the comment that he looked so hot. He had a good sense of humour, saying that he wasn't related to Avril Lavigne, but wanted to be our girlfriend.

The next performer up was Saukrates, a talented violinist/percussionist/hip-hop singer/rapper from Toronto. He has a knack for getting everyone interested and excited about music. He was a treat to hear and see, along with his rocker guitarist. Of note, he was the one who didn't Timbaland's part in Nelly's "Promiscuous" on both Canadian idol and on the Junos.

Nelly came on stage just after 21:00, I believe. The review from the Toronto Sun pretty much sums up the evening, with a concert rating of four stars out of five.

TORONTO - Was it just me or did Nelly Furtado have a little extra skip in her step last night at the Air Canada Centre?

Canada's current musical "it girl," brought her Get Loose tour to her adopted hometown of Toronto for a sold-out show, fresh off her five-award Juno sweep in Saskatoon over the weekend.

That's bound to make any performer happy, right?

Or maybe the fact that she was shooting a DVD of her current show meant Furtado brought a little extra something to the proceedings just for the cameras.

Arriving via video on the Nelly Furtado chopper to the strains of Afraid, from her third album and 10-million-copy seller, Loose, the singer kicked off her hour-and-45-minute show with her last single, Say It Right.

Wisely ditching those unflattering MC Hammer-like pants that I witnessed during her Canadian tour launch in her actual hometown of Victoria a few weeks ago, Furtado was a slicker vision in a black sequined dress, black spandex pants and silver high-heeled ankle boots.

But much like the Victoria show, it took the fourth song, Powerless (Say What You Want) from her sophomore effort, 2003's Folklore, to really get the crowd involved in a massive clapping-singing-and-waving-arm-along.

Still, Furtado improved the timing of her crowd connection, venturing forwards during the earlier tune, Turn Off the Lights, from her 2000 debut, Whoa, Nelly!

She came down from atop her all-white stage, decorated with billowing curtains to reflect the Miami surroundings that Loose was recorded in, to perform on a tiny catwalk at the front.

Furtado even waved repeatedly to the audience during the moodier ballad, Wait For You, before leaving to change into a pink and black accented halter gown for another dramatic slow tune, Showtime, which showed off the talents of her four energetic dancers.

Backed by a six-piece band, including Toronto rapper Saukrates on percussion -- he also filled in nicely for Loose producer Timbaland, whistling on All Good Things (Come to An End), singing on Timbaland's own Give It to Me, and rapping on the duo's monster hit, Promiscuous -- Furtado just seemed more relaxed.

Perhaps the pressure-less aftermath of hosting the Juno Awards, in addition to performing and winning every trophy she was up for, does that to you.

Whatever the reason, it was a more cohesive, complete and energy-filled Furtado on the stage of the ACC than at her Victoria launch.

She even got the crowd to sing along on her acoustic version of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, the ballads Try and All Good Things (Come to An End), a remixed version of her breakthrough hit, I'm Like a Bird, and Promiscuous, all which proved to be highlights.

And despite that much-discussed sexier image produced by Loose, Furtado never got racier than a snug-fitting white and gold top and tight pair of white pants during the third of four costume changes.

Standout songs in the dance-pop vein were the Madonna-like Do It to Me, Glow with a little infusion of Blondie's Heart of Glass, the triumphant soccer anthem Forca, which saw dozens of plastic soccer balls thrown off the stage, No Hay Igual and the show-ending Maneater, with Furtado briefly on electric guitar and drums.

Set list

• Afraid (on video)
• Say it right
• Turn off the light
• Powerless (say what you want)
• Do it
• Wait for you
• Showtime
• Crazy
• In God's hands
• Try
• All good things (come to an end)
• Sexyback (performed by her backup singer)
• Give it to me
• I'm like a bird
• Glow/Heart of glass
• Forca
• Promiscuous

Encore

• Party
• No hay igual
• Maneater

I agree with most of the review. I was up on my feet for most of the show, sitting down briefly when slower songs were being performed. However, I started to dance when "Say it right" had kicked off, for it's one of my favourite songs on Loose.

The dance number for "Wait for you" was romantic and nicely done. It reminded me of seeing the ballet again, for the dancers movements were so graceful and were such a treat to observe.

Her covering "Crazy" was incredible. The whole crowd was singing the chorus. It was so much fun. I also thought that incorporating Blondie's "Heart of glass" in "Glow" was brilliant. It kind of reminded me of the Pet Shop Boys covering U2's "Where the streets have no name" and throwing in "I can't take my eyes off you." Sheer brilliance.

I enjoyed hearing "Sexyback" by her backup singer. It was a joyous, get-up-on-your-feet-and-celebrate time. "All good things come (to an end)" is another song that I can't help but play repeatedly. Everyone was in a partying mode when "I'm like a bird" and "Forca" were sung.

Despite not knowing any Spanish, other than food items on menus, I enjoyed "No hay igual" in her encore. "Maneater" was the best way for Nelly to end the show. Lots of singing, dancing, drumming, guitars, ... everything was perfect. I can't wait for the DVD to come out.

This was the best show I've seen so far this year. I had a terrific time out.

Afterwards, PS and I had hot chocolate at the local Tim Hortons and chatted before I drove him home. I filled up my car's gas tank at 99.5 cents a litre. I got home about ten minutes past midnight.

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Song that's stuck in my head: Nelly Furtado's "All good things (come to an end)"
Yummy food eaten today: Meatball sub
What I crave: A chocolate chip cookie

Recent thoughts:
Readings, lights, and random thoughts - 2009-03-15
Thoughts about work, school, and peeps - 2009-03-09
Working from home and a mini life update - 2008-12-19
The weekend is here! - 2008-01-06
A new year - 2008-01-01