about
Hi, my name is Lara and this is my blog. It’s purple. Ish. About me? Well, let’s dive right in:
This site was started as a way to communicate my travels on a trip to India and Thailand about 3 years ago. Since then it has been used for documenting a condo reno and as a way to share recipes, and not much else.
I’ve done some writing in the past (online and off) and recently made a decision to start again, as it helps me to purge thoughts from my head, clearing the way for more important topics, like “white or red?”
Anything you read here should be taken at face-value. I have neither the skills as a writer nor the inclination to layer my words with hidden meaning or innuendo, so rest assured you will find neither here. I also lack the imagination to make up fictionalized accounts of my life, so you will have to settle for the boring truth. Sorry about that.
Career wise, I spent many years doing software testing, business analysis and application support for a non-profit society. I recently left and joined a Big Corporation where I neither test nor analyze, but was hired because I can do both. I’m working on a large project which will ultimately create a new enterprise-wide testing practice and as such, spend my days talking and writing about testing, which I quite like.
I am known as a geek, but this is only partially true. I have no formal geek training but I have always been that person who others come to for help with anything computer related – from the days of AES word processors and WordPerfect onwards. I love to tinker and figure things out (which is why I was a good tester) and love playing with new software. $0.99 iPhone apps are pure delicious crack.
Another area I have no formal training in is writing. Tinkering geek + wanna be writer = blogger, I guess?
As much as I like writing, I think I may like tinkering with the blog itself more, which is one of the reasons I recently switched from Wordpress.com to Wordpress.org. I have downloaded and fiddled with a hundred themes and plugins and although I have yet to dive into the CSS I know it is simply A MATTER OF TIME.
(Related, my boyfriend has started calling me a widget).
(Also related, I don’t like this theme much. Don’t judge me by my theme! Yet).
I share a birthday, December 2, with Britney Spears. I had your crazy long before she did, my friends. Britney and I also got married in the same month of the same year, with similar disastrous results, although in my case there were less cheetos and no off-spring.
The exact date I was born, December 2, 1969, is also the date the Cookie Monster made his first appearance on Sesame Street. Do you have a patron muppet saint?
This is my family crest. It is an insane unicorn, sticking out his tongue. It could not be more appropriate, unless perhaps it sparkled too. My brother and I have decided, though, that the motto was mistranslated at some point over the years and is not Pray and Work but rather but rather Eat and Play.
My idea of the ultimate play time is traveling and I’ve been, in recent years, to India, Cambodia and Thailand (several times). I was in Thailand during the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004. No, I didn’t see any dead bodies, yes I lost a lot of stuff and yes I have been back since and would go back every year if I could afford to.
Purple has been my favorite colour since I was little. I had purple carpet in my bedroom and completely lost my shit over my first bottle of nail polish – purple nail polish. The name purplelara was given to me by a group of male friends in high school, with whom I happened to watch the Brigitte Nielsen classic, Red Sonja, on a day that I had purple hair. Did I mention I went to high school in the 80’s?
I live with my awesome boyfriend in the same city in which I was born, North Vancouver (that’s in Canada, by the way). I laugh out loud every day and even though I’ve been known to throw a pretty good pity party, all in all, life is pretty good, and I know it.
When I started this blog I was just coming through the worst part of a bad phase of my life. The original tag line was “somewhere between downright blue and tickled pink”. Today it’s “more pink than blue” because I am.
Please feel free to comment if you’d like. I accept pats on the back and also respect your right to challenge my opinion on anything said here. I will not, however, publish any comment without a valid email address and I will immediately remove any comments I find to be left for any reason other than to add to a mature, respectful and honest discussion.
Thanks for stopping by.
Lara