July 1st marks Canada's birthday and is declared a national holiday for this country. A Canada Day celebration was held at Canada Place in Vancouver. Steven, Kelvin, Dale, Louis and I attended the street festival for the entire day.

Louis and I at the new Vancouver Convention Centre


Louis was born in the US, now a proud Canadian


Flying Canucks with DJ Leanne (trampoline acrobatics)


Vancouver Academy of Dance


BC Cultural Bhangra Academy

Want to blog about work? Don't. Here is another one of my professional no-no's regarding on-the-job etiquette. I have written up five reasons why you should not blog about your work:

1. Blogging negatively about your company will show your disloyalty, immaturity, and lack of good judgement.

2. Blogging about or making fun of your clients is very unprofessional and breaches their privacy.

3. Venting about your co-workers and employees would cause distrust in you. You may be thrown into the world of office politics.

4. Blogging about your boss is stupid. You should be fired for that.

5. Disclosing any confidential information goes against your contract. A lawsuit may fall into your lap!

Unless your company has hired you specifically to blog about its events and work atmosphere, I do not advise for bloggers to go out on their own to write about work, whether it be good or bad. I had blogged for one of my past companies before on their official website, but that was because I was hired to do so. Everything was reviewed and approved by the CEO. I had also blogged very positively about that company on my personal blog, but I was given permission to do so, and my blog link was sent to their PR Agent for approval. Everything went through a proper system, even though it may have looked casual to online viewers.

Once you post something in your blog, it is for the world to see. With the power of search engines, your blog can be cached long-term even if you take it down. I can't stress how many unprofessional blogs I have come across from employees at different companies venting about their jobs. Not only is it equivalent to playing with fire, but it also shows a lack of maturity on the writer. The worst authors I have come across are the naiive ones who blog their real name along with their company, then whine about it after they get fired as a result. If you strongly feel you must blog about work (which I highly do not recommend), then at least keep your identity anonymous and the companies confidential. Create a separate blog link if you must, and do not send it out to anyone who could sabotage you in the workplace. Perhaps password protect it or keep it to invite-only to family members and friends. However, no precautionary measure is 100% guaranteed, because the people who do have access to your blog could easily send the link to your company if they feel the material is offensive. Maybe you had a big fight with your ex last night... guess what? (S)he'll be sending your blog to your company to get even. Even a friend could hurt you... if a friend is jealous about your job, (s)he could send your blog around as well!

If you are blogging about your company positively, I still recommend that you keep the firm and employees anonymous on your site. Respect your co-worker's privacy, and ask them first for permission before posting up any of their photos into your site. Interestingly enough, blogging positively about your work can actually backfire on you! There was once an avid blogger I met who loved his job at a high-tech firm. He constantly wrote wonderful raves about how amazing the company and management was. I personally found his blog somewhat cheesy and advised him not to continue with it. However, when it was passed around the office to his co-workers and superiors, he was labeled as a 'suck-up' and accused of manipulatively trying to impress his bosses. His blog became popular with his superiors, but he received the cold shoulder from all the co-workers at his level. Office politics eventually bombarded him because of his 'nice' work blog. He eventually resigned from work as a result of all the stress. He was actually a good guy at heart with no ill intentions, but his blog set off the wrong impression. So my advice is: Do not blog personally about your current job, whether it be positive or negative.

If you want to blog about an old job that you had quit / been fired from, by all means I think it is fine to do so. However, keep all names anonymous and end your posts positively. Write about what you had learned from the entire experience. Past and potential employers could be coming into your blog, which could greatly affect your career path. Do not underestimate the six degrees of separation - life is long and circles are small. Do not allow yourself the chance to burn your bridges at firms with online stupidity, you never know who your bosses could be connected to.... and you never know where that blog has been sent off to!

A property development company filmed a promotional video in parts of Yaletown for a lifestyle video on Downtown living with pets. This video will be targeting renters searching for pet-friendly apartments in Vancouver. Pet-approved condos are hard to come by in Vancouver for those who do not own homes.

Though there are a few rental properties which permit pets, they come with restrictions on the size and number of animals per household. Vancouver is a tough place for pet owners who rent and cannot afford to purchase homes. Many renters I know find a loophole to this policy by hiding their pets from their landlords!

I have blurred out any promotional material in the background to protect the company's privacy and ensure that I do not breach any rights by posting these photos up.

Ever got stuck in a job that was not right for you? Sometimes, no matter how good you may have excelled at previous jobs, you can fail disastrously if you end up in a new company with the wrong job fit. This post was inspired by my sibling who currently ahors her job with extreme dispassion.

Many years ago, I encountered my first miserable experience. I worked for a boutique which was a daily nightmare for me. To be honest, it was the worst job in my entire life. Not because it was difficult, but because the job did not match with any of my skills, education, nor personality. Like the Daschund below, I was placed into a job that did not match with who I was.

I was a student at the time, and quickly looked for any job to sustain my income. It was my fault for not being more discerning on what I was applying for... but I needed to find work as soon as possible. I applied to all sorts of postings and was hired to be a sales representative for a small boutique.

Problems cropped up for me at this job right from the start. Being an office girl and student, I also always had my hair tied up professionally. But at this boutique, I was told I looked too old and 'librarianish' with my hair tied back, and was asked to let my hair all out or to dye it a lively color.

The next week, I was asked to stop wearing contact lenses because it was not natural. But when I came into work with glasses the next day, I was told that it hid my makeup and to switch back to contacts. I quickly learned that this company's rules changed almost daily depending on management's mood. I adapted by bringing several cases of makeup, shoes, hair accessories, clothing, contacts and glasses in a giant bag, so that I could quickly modify my look if management changed minds on what the boutique's rules should be. I've never worked for a company which had policies change by the hour!

The next week, I was asked to decorate the store's tree with Christmas lights. I knew how to balance accounting sheets, code webpages, and write strategic marketing reports... but the one thing I did not know was how to decorate a tree since my culture does not celebrate Christmas. What made this even worse was that their Christmas tree was a palm tree! Needless to say, the outcome was a disaster. I ended up strangling the poor palm tree with a tangled mess of blinking lights and someone else had to come save the tree.

Then came the worst part: Lifting and moving heavy boxes piled high to the ceiling on a shaky ladder. This was wisely omitted in the job description, and my body was very bruised and tired from the demanding physical work. I was yearning to be using my creative ideas I was learning at school, and the job description had said "Looking for sales support to promote our fragrances".... not decorating trees, flattening large boxes in a dusty warehouse, sweeping, cleaning, or lifting heavy boxes on a questionable ladder. I did more physical labour than actually selling!

I knew this job fit was definitely not for me. It was not utilizing any of my skills I had hoped to bring to the table, and it was also making me look incompetent since I was very slow with moving the heavy inventory. When you are not operating to your fullest potential, you may feel helpless and demoralized. It is not necessarily that you are a bad worker, it could just be that the job is not the right fit for you. Luckily, I was wise enough to realize this and never let myself feel down about working there. I made sure I always kept a cheerful disposition and treated the company with utmost respect while I looked for another job. No matter how discouraged I felt, I continued with my head held high and worked to the best of my ability.

When you are in the wrong job, my advice is to quit before you sink further into the hole. I quit the boutique after one month, but I did so on a good note. As a result, the supervisor offered me a good reference and asked me to consider coming back to work for them part-time if I ever changed my mind. I left this job completely off my resume since a one month work description would not reflect well to potential employers. When you are working for a company where none of your strengths are required, leave with grace. Never burn your bridges, no matter how terrible you felt the job was or how much you disliked it. Keep in mind that the job itself may not actually be that bad, but it is because you and the job were not the right match for each other. The job you hated could very well be a dream job for someone else... and someone's nightmare job could be your ultimate dream!

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important!

Happiness is one of the key things that makes a person beautiful. It creates an aura which affects the glow of someone's skin and the twinkle in his/her eyes. Whenever I meet a cheerful person, I feel automatically drawn into his/her wonderful energy and crave for more. But when I bump into a moody person, I start to feel uncomfortable and find myself cautiously distancing myself away. Negative people often frown their mouths and furrow their brows, which is why so many of them have angry creases etched into their face.... from all those years of scowling! After all, our face is an external mirror which reflects our internal mood.

We often hear the phrase, "What’s on the inside is what makes someone beautiful" or "Beauty is only skin deep." These statements are so overused that they become a cliché, but there is a strong element of truth to them. When I think of beauty, my first instinct is to think about how presentable someone is. However, what attracts me to the person is his/her personality and behaviour. I believe that someone can be attractive, but not beautiful. For example, a physically attractive person who is rude, violent, or racist will quickly be labeled as a very ugly person in my books.

It is not wise to be admiring someone automatically based on how (s)he looks, because looks are an illusion. Beneath all the makeup and clothes is a person who has carefully taken the time to craft such an image. I am much more interested in someone who has a cheerful engaging personality rather than what (s)he wears. Look into a person's soul... because that is where the true beauty lies.