employee of the year

The Whistler Chamber and American Express thanks all Whistlers Star Employees for their outstanding work for the season and invite them to a Service Recognition Awards Night with Dinner, Prizes, Awards and an After Party!
I got nominated as Employee of the Year for Rogers Chocolates (Whistler)! This is what they had to say:

Darran has remarkable ability to put in just a little extra for each and every customer, each and every time. He is also really SMART! He is willing to work extra shifts -even on a powder day. He sees what needs to be done and does it efficiently and with a smile. His warmth and patience with customers is beyond compare.

As part of the award I got a letter as well as a really nice photo frame of Blackcomb Glacier. It is a great photo because you can make out all the areas and shoots I go playing on on the glacier! I also won $100 worth of gift certificates to the Longhorn!

There was also free caricatures from Cruelty Free Cartoons! I let him flex his muscles and do whatever he feels, only telling him I work in a Chocolate Shop! Here is the final result:

He spelt my name wrong, but I still plugged his website! Aren't I a nice guy!?

twitter round 2

I'm going to give Twitter another go! (It's the new Buzz word...)

What am I doing?

Last time I checked: (no updates right now)

Add me as your Twitter Friend: twitter.com/darran

adding search to blogger

How to add a nice little search button to your blogger blog:

1. Click on the a Layout of your Blog in your dashboard:
2. Click on Add a Page Element:
3. Choose HTML/JavaScript and click ADD TO BLOG:
4. Put in a Title (maybe something like Search?) and put the following code in the Contents:

<form id="searchthis" action="/search" style="display:inline;" method="get">
<input id="search-box" name="q" type="text"/>
<input id="search-btn" value="Search" type="submit"/>
</form>

5. Click SAVE CHANGES

Sin é!

shamrock mission in photos

Here are some photos of our mission on Paddy's Day, taken on Taidy's camera!

The Shamrock Artists!

The Finished Shamrock!

Size Comparison :-)

The St. Patrick's Day Team!

10k

In the last few days I reached 10,000 page loads! That is not too bad for a half-arsed attempt at a blog! I still want to go back and digitize my Log from my explorer Belt in Italy in 2001.

I'm thinking about investing in a domain: darran.ie or ablaze.ie This week only, get yourself a .ie domain for €25 from blacknight! Not too bad eh?! Anyone suggestion for good hosting for a poor ex-student, who only needs it for hosting a blog and shite?

shamrock or graffiti?

UPDATE: More Photos here!

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day in Whistler and we needed to show off our Irishness. (Especially considering everyone seemed to be Irish yesterday)

So we came up with a plan! Armed with 6L of water, a couple of bottles of green food dye we headed up the slopes to a location where we thought would be good to mark out a giant shamrock. The location, which could be seen from 2 lifts, as well as the Roundhouse (the biggest Mountain Restaurant in North America [the world?])


The final result can be seen above (original photo slightly edited to you can clearly make out the Shamrock!). We needed to go on a mission half way through for another 6L of water! There was also a lot of cheers from people on the Peak Chair lift wishing us Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Hope you had a good one?

pre paddys day

St. Patrick's Day is coming up again. Tomorrow I believe! My plans for the day? I got the day off so I'm off Skiing!

So according to a report I read via Dec's Ramblings most of the Ministers at home are off doing their thing: "maximising opportunities for showcasing Ireland". There are two TD's left to run the country! So where are they all going? I made a map!

No one is in New Zealand or Australia and I haven't heard where the President is?! She is off to the Vatican City next week tho, so I guess she has to stay and watch the parade!

Things to do tomorrow:

• Wear Orange on Saint Patrick's Day - Back in 1999, it was Orange you had to wear... some very mixed up ideas there... :-S
• Make Brown Bread & Guinness Ice Cream - Not my cup of tea...
• Buy a St. Patrick's Day Flash Card - Necessary!
• Go to the Dubh Linn Gate Pub from some Après-ski - Actually.. Don't. Please Don't. That is the Worst Pub in the World... or at least Canada!
  

two down

Two years old today. Well, 2 years on Blogger after transferring from Dreambook! It is amazing what a year can do. What will this place look like next year?!

dst on xp sp1

The title of this post reads: Daylight Savings Time on Windows XP Service Pack 1.

The background:
As you may or may not be aware, America with their infinite wisdom (who knows they might prove me wrong!) decided, as part of the Energy Policy Act 2005 (US) to move the date they put their clock forward from the first Sunday of April to the second Sunday of March. Canada then followed suit.

The Problem (My Problem):
I run Windows XP Service Pack 1. I haven't been bothered updating to SP2. Microsoft issued a number of patches for nearly all their operating systems. The solution for XP SP1 was update to XP2 and then install their patch. I'm really not bothered doing that, so I needed a solution.

The Solution:
After the temporary solution of actually changing the time zone to -07:00 from -08:00 I really needed a more permanent one. I came across a blog that dealt with DST updates for older versions of Windows. The answer is to download and install one of these unofficial patches... and voilà! I'm back on -08:00 and the clock reads the correct time!

update

What I've been up to lately:

• A bit of house keeping, replacing Gurr with Grrr! It turns out I was expressing the wrong emotion! Sorry Vanessa, hope I make more sense now!

• I'm trying to sort out my flights to return to Canada Ireland, but my USIT login isn't working. They updated the system to the 2007 programme! So I'm waiting for a reply from USIT. That could be some time... BASTARDS!

• I'm also waiting for Scouting Ireland to get back to me re: My application for Jiingijamborii, which I sent them 3 weeks ago, and still no results! international@scouts.ie seem to just gobble up emails.

• I have also added a small AdSense banner at the bottom of all pages on my blog. I'm noticing a difference with a few people clicking! It is only small, it blends in and most people won't notice it as it's at the bottom of the page!

• Besides that, I'm a terrible team member on Geared Up Blog, but constantly looking for a new story. Any ideas? Drop me a mail! Thanks!

• I'm also quite busy at work:

P.S. Sorry for clogging everyones RSS readers up when I updated a few of the posts. Blame Blogger!

UPDATE: I'm returning to Ireland not Canada! Thanks Elisabeth :-)

team geared up - february

2nd - Video: Maposaurus

9th - Robot Everest Rescue Helicopter

9th - Nike Trial Vans

19th - New Skis: K2s Public Enemy