Operating at resonant frequency

New Digs

2011-03-15T21:03:00.002-06:00

Things have been a little crazy over the past few weeks. I broke my back and was in the hospital for four days. I was back at work the next week, but I was wearing my clamshell brace the entire time. When I went for the follow up appointment on 7 Mar 2011, the doctor told me that I probably wouldn't have to wear a brace, and he was surprised when I demonstrated that I was wearing one. He then told me that it would be in my best interest to take my brace off for a few hours at a time. He also told me 'formally' that I should not drive while wearing my brace. Combine the two pieces of advice, and I can drive again!

When I got home that evening, I took off the brace, and kept it off for about 90 hours. (three and a half days) The reason I put it back on, was because Friday morning when I got to work, it felt like there was a piece of hot glass right at the fracture point, which was the L1 vertebra. I took my brace and put it on as tight as I could manage, and I felt fine. I was a little stiff and had to make more of an effort to breathe, but I was functional yet again, with minimal pain.

All the while, things were being moved to the new apartment, but there was still a big thing missing: Beds for our daughters. We had been searching around, with the main focus being Kijiji, and just last week we found something. A set of bunk beds, two end tables, and two chests of drawers, all in a very fine wood. Not sure what kind, might be maple or birch, but there are very nice. The best part? It cost $200 for the entire set. We could not believe our good fortune!

Also the fact that we were able to move into this apartment in Beaumont, which has always been a dream of Caitlin's to have our own place in this town. The amazing thing is that it's cheaper than many places in Edmonton! There are some advantages to having a single income household. Most people would wonder how we get by on so little money, but I just grateful that things have worked out as well as they have.

There are a few trouble spots on the horizon, such as the fact that I have yet to get a response regarding my student loans repayment assistance application, but there was a massive SNAFU simply because I wrote the wrong date on the application. Instead of 1 Dec 2010, I put 30 Nov 2010. This was too early, and I was told this when the deadline had almost run out. Furthermore, there was a mark on my application for permanent disability, so it had to be reviewed in Ottawa, and I was told if there was any further documentation needed then I would be notified accordingly. The only issue with that is I thought the permanent disability application was discarded because I failed to produce a doctor's note stating my situation.

In any case, it's been nearly two months since I put in my application, and both the National Student Loans and Alberta Student Loan people are starting to breathe down my neck. The other day I got a letter printed on green paper reminding me that payment is due. Every time I get one of those notifications, I call in and they tell me not to worry, because the application is still being processed.

I wish I could just get rid of that debt, but I brought it upon myself, and I'll have to get out of it myself.

However, our new apartment has been working quite well for us. It's smaller than what we're used to, and we're still searching through stuff and sending clothes to Goodwill, but this has been a long time coming. Even when we were moving in, there were a number of things that we threw out. There was a shirt that I inherited from Chris that was too big and had more than a few holes. Caitlin threw it out while I was incapacitated. Eh, I have lots more shirts, so I don't think I'll miss that one!

The other thing that I need to work through is the orange foot locker I got from my Grandpa Joe. It has stuff in there going back to when I was seven or eight years old. WAY BACK. My plan is to take pictures of things, make a blog entry about it, and then toss or donate it. I'm certain there are some toys in there too, and those I might give to Erini and Bronwyn, depending on what shape they're in. I can start with that project now because we picked up the camera from the Tolley's on Sunday.

There is still a bunch of stuff that's over there, such as all the boxes in the Mezzanine, and a couple of jackets, and there's my murse that I can't seem to find anywhere. Caitlin suggested that it's hanging behind my striped jacket, but I'll have to check next time we're over there.

Pride

2011-03-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

Monday 21 Feb 2011 Life changed in an instant for my family. We were enjoying the lovely sledding activity at Bearspaw, though I was a little concerned that the hill was so steep, and slick. I just wanted to show off my new sled, the Zipfy, that I had not had a lot of chance to try out. Previously, I had taken a few runs, and hit the jump at the bottom, sending myself, and my daughter all over the hill. The second to last run I tried my hardest to stay on course, and with the big blue sled, it seemed natural to lean back after I went over the jump. I now wonder if that is what did me in. On my final run, using the Zipfy sled, I had a good start, good run, and moments before I hit the jump at the bottom the though crossed my mind that I was going far too fast. A shame I didn't act on it, because over the jump I went, and down I came. Unlike the previous Zipfy run, I tried to keep the sled under my butt. This transferred the shock of impact right through me, and peaked at my L1 vertebrae, inducing a burst fracture of the spinal column segment.

I didn't know those particular details at the time, but what I did know was that I was hurt. Very badly. There were a few boys from Jamie Brown's family who asked if I was ok after they celebrated my amazing jump. Then their inquiry turned to alert, then panic when I told them that I was not okay, and I needed help. They called, “MEDIC!” and waved their arms crossing them above their heads, the universal sign of help, and Caitlin came down as quick as she could. A little too quick, but she was able to stop herself from doing a faceplant in the snow. The best I could do was roll around, and Caitlin helped stretch out my back. I was quite comfortable lying on the snow, and as it turns out, icing a break is the best thing to do.

But I couldn't stay there forever, and after some rolling around, I managed to get to my feet. With the aid of Caitlin and Mike Meldrum, we were able to slowly walk up the hill. Some would say it was the longest walk ever, and while it was painful, I just focused on taking one step at a time, and before I knew it, we were at the top. Once at the top, I walked unaided back to the church building where I was looked over my Mark Sommerfelt. He checked to make sure all parts of my legs were still responsive, indicating there wasn't any nerve damage, but he strongly advised getting xrays to be sure what was wrong, and further advised it would be best to get an ambulance to take me there. In hindsight, that might have been a good idea, but when he made that ambulance suggestion, that's when the Tolley's showed up. I then opted to get a ride with Dad Tolley to the Grey Nuns Emergency in their GMC Sonoma. The most difficult thing was getting in and out of the vehicle.

Once at the hospital, Dad Tolley got me a wheelchair so that I didn't have to walk anymore, and that helped a little. After the preliminary check-in, he left me in the waiting room and told me to call him when they have a full diagnosis. It was at this point that I really had to use the bathroom, and was able to do so successfully. At the time I was just relieved to empty my bladder, but the fact I had full control of my bladder and bowels meant I had very little, if any, spinal nerve damage.

Once I was seen by a doctor, they but me on a bed with a slider board, in Front Hallway #2 area. With the exception of going for xrays and a CT scan, I was there for seven and a half hours. I'll tell you this much, if you think that hospitals are boring, try staring at the ceiling for seven hours! To be fair, I had my cell phone with me, and I was posting to Facebook and Twitter like there was no limit to my text plan. I also made a few calls, but it was encouraging to get words from people that were worried about me, and hoping all the best for my recovery.

I was a little frustrated, thinking that this was all a little overblown, and that I was going to be discharged once they came back with the results from the xray. When the doctor came back with a somber look on his face, then announced that I had fractured my L1, my entire attitude changed. I started crying and I was near inconsolable. The attending nurse asked if I needed a painkiller, to which I just told him that I was really freaked out. He told me to think positive.

There are few times in my life that I have felt quite that vulnerable. My other visits to the hospital, such as May 16, 2005, and November 3, 2004 are very close to match the intensity of worry and fear that choked my soul. Another time I had the same sense of dread was when I failed two courses in my second year. I was forced to face consequences for my actions and the reality of failure. With the engineering courses, they were quite difficult and required a significant amount of work, something that I didn't put in to the full force that I should have. Yes, I finished my degree and never had to take Dean's Vacation, but sometimes I wonder if that would have given me the needed boot in the rear that could have got me into a career that has a bit more of a future than an office assistant.

I need to get my resume and cover letter prepped for the tech position a family friend has waiting in the wings. It's not based in Edmonton, but it should pay sufficient, and it should also be a bit more fulfilling than what I do now.

Returning to the matter of my injury, after the CT scan confirmed the fracture, the official word was L1 burst fracture. The treatment would involve a back brace, which would be fitted at the Royal Alexandria Hospital, north of the downtown core. That meant I would have to be transported via ambulance. That was quite the experience, because they had to put a collar on me, strap me down to a spinal board, which was thicker and harder than the one I been lying on for the past eight hours. Though the trip was less than half an hour, my pelvic bone was just screaming in pain by the time we got there. Once I was on a bed, and the board was out, I was much relieved.

Then I needed to get some basic examinations. Like a rectal exam. As of 11:15pm 21 Feb 2011, I no longer have a virgin butt. Not to say it was a painful experience, just awkward. Especially since it was a male doctor that did the exam, and four female nurses were watching. That kind of sounds like a really kinky porn movie.

The events that followed get a little fuzzy. Largely due to the morphine that I was given to deal with the pain that I said was like a 12 on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest. In retrospect, I probably didn't need the meds that bad. But that's in retrospect, and when you're in the thick of it, it's hard to judge what to do.

The Secret Behind The Great Canadian Coffee

2011-01-06T23:02:00.003-07:00

I'm not a big coffee drinker, in fact I can count on one hand the number of times I've had coffee, and that was Swiss Water Decaf with a sizable amount of cream and sugar. I'm more a hot chocolate guy. However, my coworkers are a different sort, and my boss is a class of his own. As things go, we ran out of coffee, and not knowing the difference, the operations manager (ironically also of the hot chocolate camp) ordered some more coffee through Staples. Was it because it's cheaper? Maybe. Was it because Staples has same day delivery with Tim Hortons does not? More so. Whatever the reasoning was, a red canister of Folgers graced our office, much to the chagrin of my boss. He drank it all the same, but when he found out what had happened, he brought to our attention that the was only one type of coffee that should be brewed in the office.
He even brought out one of the empty cans to demonstrate which type, in case there was any misunderstanding. President's Choice 'The Great Canadian Coffee' was the coffee of choice for the office for a very particular reason. Was my boss partial to PC products, or just cheap? A little bit of both and a little of neither is the correct answer.

Turns out President's Choice coffee is also sold under another label, but this fact is not widely known. As my boss tells it, one time he was reading over the coffee can - he can't remember why - and noticed there was a mention of Tim Hortons on the can. My boss knows everyone and their third cousins, and one of his acquaintances owns a Tim Hortons coffee shop. Boss man calls him up and asks about this mention of Timmies on a PC coffee can and his friend divulges an interesting secret. 'The Great Canadian Coffee' and Tim Hortons coffee are identical. After telling us the scathing secret, he looked over the can to point out this tidbit of info, only to find it wasn't there.

For curiosity's sake, I looked over the can myself, and found an interesting anecdote labeled, "Chef's Tip." It reads: For a "true north" taste experience, try your coffee "double double" with your favourite donut.

"Double double" and favourite donut. Hmmm... What kind of "true north" experience could they possibly be hinting at?

However, there's more to this story. Just to prove that this PC coffee is just as good as Timmies, my boss went and bought a can of each, brewed a pot of each, and had the coffee drinkers do a taste test. Thought it was tough to pick for some people, everyone picked the PC brand.

I'm still sticking with hot chocolate.

Road to recovery

2010-06-11T00:14:00.001-06:00

Funny to think that I need group therapy of some sort at this point.
Actually, it's not funny at all, because I think that's what's been
missing for some time now. I was trying to get a reference from my
doctor to go back to the clinic, which I haven't been to in years, but
that has yet to turn results.

Then the other day, Tuesday 8 June 2010 to be precise, I found that
perhaps the kind of therapy I need you don't get at a hospital. The
LDS Addiction Recovery Program is available to all, is free to attend,
and you do not need to have a reference to attend. I was considering
attending for some time, but after a conversation with my wife, we
both came to the conclusion that I should go to these LARP sessions.

I might have just crossed a geek line, but that's ok. I say that
because though I was very intimidated to attend this meeting, it was
ultimately very much worth going! I plan to attend next week as well.

The funny thing is the last time I went to this ARP meeting, I found
it very frustrating, and I recognized someone there. I then felt very
much like I shouldn't be there, plus the structure of the meeting I
found to be (at the time) very pointless. This time though, I went by
myself, and walked through that door with the confidence that I wanted
to be there because I needed to be there.

It was a great uplifting experience and I'm going to do my best to
study the workbook that I picked up.

Oddly enough, I lost that buzz when I came home and turned on Glee.
After I managed to sit through the episode, I tweeted the following:
"Finally satthrough an episode of #Glee. Mightget more of the CDs.
Why? Because the musical talent of this show outweighs the acting."

iPressure

2010-06-03T00:38:00.001-06:00

28 May 2010 marked an important day for Macintosh aficionados across
the globe with the release of the much praised, sometimes fabled,
iPad. Edmonton, Alberta also had the opening of a new Apple Store.
Tweets abounded from every sector of Edmonton as people clamoured to
get their hands on the precious commodity that had finally been
officially released outside the United States. Not to say that people
weren't tripping over themselves prior to this date. I know of one
person in my local church congregation that has had an iPad for close
to a month now, and I was able to try it out. From my experience,
would I say the iPad is a wonderful device? Yes. Magical? Not
really. Easy to use? Definitely. Would I take time off work to sit
in line to get one? No. Would I search the city to find one, after
completing my regular work day? No. Would I wait until there was
sufficient funds in my bank account before embarking on a search to
find an iPad? No, no, and again I say no.

I have no strong affinity to the Macintosh name - even in my choice of
fruit I would sooner pick Spartan or Pink Lady - and thus do not see a
need to join the masses who praise the works of the great Steve Jobs.
That is not to say that I dislike Mr. Jobs and everything he is
associated with, for if that were so, I would have to stop utilizing
the moderately coherent phrase 'PIXAR4LIFE' whenever I talk about
animated films.

And that is not to say that I was not ever tempted to purchase an
Apple product. Recall in January 2010, after we had received a $15
iTunes gift card as a Christmas gift, I was near ready to purchase an
iPod Touch. This same temptation surfaced when I broke my iPaq in
October 2009, such to the point that I posted the iTem on my christmas
wish list. Once my brilliant wife repaired iPaq, I amended my wish
list. As for the gift card, we used it to buy an album which iTunes
allowed me to burn to CD, and we also aquired a portable DVD player
for half the cost of a basic iPod Touch. This investment was quite
prudent as now we're able to watch movies after Rini has gone to bed,
and also provide some entertainment on long car trips, such as the one
we recent made to Taber.

But the iPad is still a wonderous little device, and once prices drop,
I could see devices similar to it become more the norm. Tablet
technology is not new, far from it. Ten years ago someone gave a very
similar speech to the one Jobs gave in late January 2010. Tablet
computers were to be the wave of the future, and soon they would
become commonplace. Up until 2009, tablet computers generally carried
a four digit price tag, and were fragile like aluminum foil coated in
glass. They might survive one drop, but unless these devices were
protected like the Panasonic toughbook, they were not generally used
for consumer use. Commercial and industrial applications abound, plus
they make for wonderful product placement props on CSI:NY.

At the end of the day, why would I want to throw my hat into the ring
with this new product? Because it's the new 'it' gadget? I would
have the oppurtunity to be at the forefront of technological history?
It's trendy and fashionable? Everyone else is doing it? These are
the questions I find myself surrounded with. Petty, insipid, and
otherwise pointless questions that do not garner the need to be
addressed at this time. True, iPaq's wifi card will only work on
802.11b, but for what I need right now, that's enough.

I would almost consider getting a chinese knockoff, such as the APAD
which my coworker purchased on eBay for a paltry $150. Running on
Android, it has a similar interface, but has the flexibility to allow
for additional peripherals. USB keyboard, mouse, and external hard
drive just to name a few are some of the differences from the iPad.

If I would be using the device for the same functions that I use iPaq,
it would have to be decent for writing, tweeting, email and internet
browsing primarily. Music and movies would be secondary.

But I will have to wait for the day when that want becomes a need.
There are other things that I can devote my attention to right now.
Like the fact I got to help my little girl ride a bike today!

The prodigal blogger returns

2010-05-07T21:29:00.001-06:00

Not to say that I've been going on benders and attending shaker after
shaker, but I have not been a responsible with my writing as of late.
The irony is that I've been writing on LDSJournal.com with the
intention of one day turning the entries into a book. I have two
blogs, a twitter account, and I still thought that it would be
ingenius to sign up for something else to have it all published one
day!

With one quick Google search, I discovered blurb.com which is a
publishing service for small quantities. All I have to do is download
the software, and put together the entries I want published, and a
softcover book can be put together for as little as $4.95. I'm
thinking that I would be closer to the $15 side of things. Still, it
would be nice to have the entries all strung together in one complete
volume.

Another reason why I have returned to this blog, and may abandon
LDSJournal.com altogether, is the ability to do email entries. In
order to do it with blogger, you simply set up and email address for
the blog to receive, and away you go. With LDSJournal.com, it's the
same thing, but you have to enroll in the Gold Program, which has a
$30 annual fee attached to it. Yeah. Plus, with the journaling, I
wasn't adding hyperlinks, nor was I adding any pictures. Once these
facts hit me in the face like a wet fish, I saw that I had the
solution in front of me the whole time. I just had to go back to what
I had.

I've had a bit of a gadget bug for the last little while. I would
think that the iPad has a lot to do with that, not only because of the
hype that's been mulling for months, but also because I was able to
try it out myself. It is a formidable device, and indeed I wouldn't
mind owning one. However, my iPaq is still functioning very well, and
is sufficient for my needs. I use it as a writing tool, and for
scriptures as well as a lesson manual. Not to mention the mircophone
which takes decent memos. I will admit the size of the font on the
message window for the mobile gmail is a bit of a pain to work with,
especially when you're tired, but it does work, and I can spot
something if it doesn't look right.

Push comes to shove, I could just borrow Dory to do entries from time to time.

Do I really need something else right now to validate my need for
toys? Not really. What I do need is a new home for my family. Baby
#2 is on its way in September, and we have to be ready.

Hope of the season

2009-12-22T22:58:00.003-07:00

Originally written 22 Dec 2009

----------------------------

With the Christmas season comes the idea of peace on earth and good will towards men. Such is the same thing in our household, expect when we have the dinner table battle to get food in! I suppose I'll never understand my daughter, but it's best to keep trying, that way when she tries to understand me, we might have some regions of understanding overlapping. I'm quite sure we won't understand everything, but if we connect in some way, that would help.

Stay on target

2009-12-22T00:03:00.002-07:00

In an effort to keep myself in good health, I am going to attempt, once again, to write something every day.

I don't want to make twitter comments my only writing in a day, and therefore will restrict myself to a few minutes of blogging.

Went sledding with my daughter, and I finally got my Secret Santa gift. Plus a gift for my wife, using a gift bag from one of our suppliers.

I still say that Caitlin is going be blown away by her Christmas present, and she doesn't know what's in store for her. At least I hope so.

Time's up.

Lots of firsts

2009-07-26T22:55:00.002-06:00

It was a weekend for a lot of firsts. We used our tent for the first time since we received it as a Christmas gift. It was Rini's first time sleeping in a tent. It was my first time sleeping in a double sleeping bag, and the first time I have ever slept on an air mattress. I'm not sure about the last one, but I do recall that my family used foam mattress for most of our camping excursions. I thought yoga mats would have the same feel, but after a very poor sleep at the Priesthood camp a couple months back, I realized I was very wrong.

A few wise purchases later, and we are already for our tenting expedition. It was quite the adventure putting Rini to bed in a sleeping bag since a) she had never slept in one, and b) our bed was right beside hers! The toughest challenge was getting her to stay in her sleeping bag, because she kept crawling into ours.

This did open my eyes to how we could deal on our own for a camping trip, and just how ill prepared we are in some areas. Hence I'm glad we had this test run before we went off to who knows where for our vacation at the end of August.

The plan is to go to Banff, but with the cost of the campsite being $27/night, the fire pit for the campsite an additional $8.80/night, and the park pass $19/night, we are considering camping somewhere else. Some where... cheaper. But with some camp grounds you get what you pay for.

We are also considering inviting some friends to come along with us, and we'll have to see how that will work out. First they have to finish moving, and then we'll see if we can get along for dinner, much less an entire weekend together! But, there has been a invitation to play Blokus, so I would think that things would run smoothly.

New hope and New life

2009-03-17T22:30:00.002-06:00

I haven't figured out how to get http://twitter.com working through iPaq, but I can
post on my cell phone. I might be attaching a widget to this blog to
get the twitter feed, since I update that much more often than the
blog. Mind, I can also update Twitter via text.

It's pretty fun!

Old goals and new ones

2009-02-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't been keeping much up in terms of this blog, nor the other
one, but this is largely due to the fact that... I'm lazy. I've also
done a lot more reading and watched a considerable amount of House
(the Medical Drama starring the caustic Hugh Laurie) since I was able
to procure season two from the Library. Freaky episode when he gets
shot. In retrospect, you almost wonder why no one had attempted to
shoot him before. Now that I ponder it, he got abused quite a bit in
the second season. I still think my favourite episode was the one the
had 'Matt' from Heroes guest star. Although the actor did appear as
the character from the Heroes series, he did a formidable job.
Caitlin and I kept saying that he should just read their minds and
quit asking them questions. In the end, turns out that if the doctors
were mind readers, it would have saved a lot of hassle. The six month
episode was very well done too, but I was sad the mom had to die.

In any case, I was going to mention the fact that I had a PPI with EQ
pres, and I made me realize that I need to take scripture study up
again. Really helps focus your thoughts, as does writing.

I'm not sure if writing actually helps focus thoughts, or if it's just
a matter that you can write something down, and clear up your head for
other things at hand. Goodness knows that's the only reason I'm doing
as well at my job as I am right now. I continually write reminders to
myself on Outlook to tell me to call people, fax things, and take out
the trash. I have a great memory, it's just a bit too much like a
sieve.

I also set a bunch of reminders on my cell phone. I used to do it with
iPaq, but I have realized of late that I usually always have my phone
with me. Plus, the alarm is louder. This has helped immensely in
recent days with reminding me to talk my meds. This was the thing
that tipped me off. If I can remember to take my meds each day, why
not dedicate time to study scriptures about that time? Take physical
meds, take spiritual meds. Works right? Not yet. Of the five days
I've had this goal, I've only done it once. Eighty percent failure
rate. Ouch. Well, I shouldn't be so hard on myself, because today is
the fifth day. I'm going to study up after I'm done here, and then
it's off to sleep. Waking up to fresh bread is great, but actually
sleeping is a great treat too.

I am so glad Caitlin convinced me to get that "Better Homes and
Gardens" Cookbook. I had no idea that there was bread maker receipes
in there!

Production ideas

2009-01-14T23:20:00.001-07:00

I was thinking of examples on how to demonstare pace to the people in
the production of "The Emperor's New Clothes." We want to have the
lines flowing, kind of like a relay race. Passing the baton from
runner to runner. The pass is made when the receiver is close to top
speed, and does not look back when they grab to baton. Therefore the
average speed of the baton is quite fast.

I found another one, or maybe there's lots of them out there, and I
just found this one. In the Pixar movie, "The Incredibles" there are
a number of action sequences, but the dialogue is quite speedy too.
When Helen and Bob are bantering regarding directions, it's very snap,
snap quick, and moves with the chaos of the truck. Then there is also
the conversation with Lucious and Honey. It's line upon line upon
line. The next one starts just about before the other one finishes.
That kind of the pace you want these productions to move at, unless
you have a bit of a pause on purpose.

Any kind of pause will make things seem a little odd, or tense, again,
its all of what you want to set the mood with.

Having a beardie feels a little weirdie

2009-01-08T23:06:00.001-07:00

Monday was the day the I decided for the second time in my life that I
would grow some facial hair. It was Caitlin's insistance actually.
She thought that I look much better with some sort of beard. My
calling does not require that I be clean shaven, and neither does my
work place. Plus, Caitlin has been growing out her hair at my
insistance, and she's been doing it for over a year now. I think she
looks very nice with longer hair, and she's starting to get used to
it.

As for the beard, it feels interesting, but a little odd at the same
time. For the first couple of days, I thought that I needed to shave,
but then I remembered that I was growing it out. Now, it's a bit
softer, and gives me something to rub when I think. Gives my head a
break from being scratched up.

The dryness in the air is doing enough work in that department, I
don't need to help it along. The weather has been as cold as it has
been dry. Bleh. All this week there was the promise that it was
going to warm up, get temperatures somewhere in the single digits.
Yeah. I'm thinking that's never going to happen! But wait! There's
the weekend. We are promised temperatures that are actually above
zero! I think I'll believe it when I see it.

I know. Faith is important. If it wasn't for faith, the sun wouldn't
rise in the morning, right? I have faith. Faith in my wife,
(girlfriend, at the time) was what kept us from going in the ditch
that one blustery night we went to Red Deer. That was crazy, and
scary.

Complete whiteout. No cars in front of us, just a wall of white.
Then the snow let up a bit, and we could see the road again. Almost
every time, Caitlin would tell me we were in the middle of the road.
I couldn't see the road to my right or my left, all I saw were the
wells left in place by the many cars that had travelled the road. If
I trusted her, and she was right, then we would be fine, and we
wouldn't run into the cars that were in the opposite lane. If she was
wrong, we would go into the ditch. Everytime, she was right. I would
steer over to the right, and sure enough, there was the rest of the
lane that I had hopped out of when the road was whited out.

I trusted her then, and I trust her now when she says that I look nice
with a beard. It's not that much of a sacrifice, but it's something
that is taking a bit of getting used to. Happy wife; Happy life.

The other thing is that we have determined what we are going to be
doing for the Calgary Comic Expo. We did have the idea to do Raz, but
we are going to push that for another year. I don't think we would
have been able to pull it off in the amount of time we have right now.
I shouldn't say what we are planning, but suffice it to say, we are
going to be experimenting with some wigs that we're going to pick up
from Shirley Potters.

Christmas cheer for all

2008-12-24T22:56:00.003-07:00

Christmas is an interesting time. Fascinating really. You have people rushing around, doing this, getting that, wondering if they have everything, and those are the people who do their shopping online! As for the malls, that can get to be a bit more of a zoo. I went out to the mall today to get some last minute Christmas shopping done, and the crowd wasn't quite what I imagined it would be. Then again, I went to Millwoods Town Center, not West Edmonton Mall or Kingsway. I'm not that crazy. I found what I needed and then some. I was rather proud of myself that I found a gift all by myself. Now, I'm just wondering how this gift will be received, and if it proves that I really don't know people as well as I thought. I've done some pretty bad gifts in the past, but this one I gave it a bit more thought, and it felt right.

I was listening to The Bear and I caught the end of the song. The song was actually over, but the announcer was talking about the song, and the album it was from. I was a little surprised when he said that it was a Christmas song, and further surprised when he said it was from We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year. Not exactly music that stirs the soul and makes you dream about sugarplums, but it's still a pretty good disc if you're into the harder music scene. I happened to know that Duff is into that kind of thing, or at least he used to be, and I thought that he would enjoy it. Not exactly the best music to play around kids, but the music was not recorded with that in mind. That or people who let their kids listen to Metal, they have different ideas about what's good for a child to listen to. I have heard of some kids who play Rock Band, and know all the words to Nirvana songs. That's a little freaky, but that's just me.

Turns out my fear about getting ousted was unfounded. People were just getting a little flustered with the amount of work that has piled up on ourselves, and it was starting to show on everyone. Plus taking meds made things a little bit easier to deal with.

We had a wonderful gift exchange, and also received some good news about one of the salesperson's newest addition to his family! Olivia Noella. Cute little girl, eight lbs, 22". I guessed wrong, and therefore did not win the baby pool. Doesn't really matter though, because the money from the pool went to the new daddy, because the person who won thought that he could use the money more than anyone else. AND IT'S TRUE. When you first start off, it's good to have some extra cash to cover costs like diapers and formula (unless she breastfeeds, unlike Rini), but after the first couple months, or weeks, the thing you need more than anything is SLEEP. That's hard to wrap.

But the presents I got in the gift exchange at work were quite easy to wrap, except for one. The metal sign which reads, "NO TRESPASSING: Violators will be shot, and survivors will be shot again;" easy to wrap. The magnet attached to it reading, "Come over to the Dark Side... we have cookies!" Easy to wrap. The little plastic trash can with the blinking lights and three pads of note paper and the stress ball. Easy to wrap. The bookmark with the Chinese (Japanese) character for faith and the beautiful pen set, both were easy to wrap. Even the wine set, that was easy to wrap too. But the one gift that I was really looking forward to, that I'm not even sure if you can call a gift, was very hard to wrap. In fact, it's a gift you get all year long. I got a raise! I was hoping for a bonus, but I'll take a raise just as steadily!

Merry Christmas, and the best of the season to everyone! Double for anyone who read this!

This is what happens when you don't take your meds

2008-12-22T22:54:00.002-07:00

I'm starting to wonder just how much I enjoy my job right now.
Before, it was simple enough, and I was in a groove. Now, I'm never
sure what's going on. I don't have much of a plan of what I'm going
to do in the day, because most of the time, I can never get to it.
There is always something that grabs my time, and by the end of the
day, what I had planned to do remains undone, along with a number of
other things.

I'm going to sound a little emo here, but I was also a bit depressed,
and I really didn't want to be at work anymore. I was even told to do
something directly, and I didn't do it, because I felt that I had
something more important to do. Never mind that I had chased down
accounts all morning, the fact that I had not resolved all the
accounts and there were still a very large amount outstanding
remained. Effort is good, but at the end of the day, we need results.
If results are not there, then the day was a waste.

Or so it seems. The message I got was, "You are not doing your job,
and if you don't do it, then someone else will have to do it." What I
heard had a lot more expletives. I tend to do that when I'm
frustrated with myself. I also almost crashed the car a couple times
too because I was driving a little recklessly because I was so angry
with myself.

Then Caitlin reminded me of something I forgot. Meds. Haven't taken
them for over two weeks now, and it's starting to show. I might have
to switch to more than once a week. If it helps me focus, then it
will be worth it in the end.

It's hard to be a responsible father with an orange braclet on the fourth floor.

Phones and Phunnies

2008-12-21T23:33:00.002-07:00

It's kind of odd that today, I spent close to two hours on the phone. First conversation was with my Grandma, and I haven't talked to her for some time, plus I needed to thank her for paying for our AMA membership. It was nice to catch up, and I also found that talking to her educated me a little about my family history. I know that dad has handled most of the things on his side, and I have taken responsibility for most of mom's side, but it was still interesting to hear the stories from Grandma first hand.

Than I talked with Morgan for the better part of forty five minutes.
It was great to talk trash with a guy for once. It's nice to talk to
your spouse, but when you freely call your friends idiots and they
know you speak in jest, it feels great! Sad thing is we're both on
the same boat. In dire need to talk to another guy! You can only
take so much of baby and wife before you have to do something
masculine like trap someone in an outhouse by roping it shut, tipping
it over, and setting it on fire. Barring the actual performance of
such an atrocity, you can talk about it to some degree with someone.

Another thing I've been doing lately, as I avoid household chores, is
watching videos from thatguywiththeglasses.com. Screamingly funny,
although it does take a certain type of person to understand the
humour and not be offended by it. Utards would definitely hate it and
visit with their priesthood authority after seeing some of the videos.
In reference to Hellboy II:The Golden Army, the bum said, "I don't
think I saw this movie. I think I was having a crack fantasy."

If you don't think that's funny, then a) you never saw the movie nor
the first one, or b) you don't plan on seeing the movie nor the
previous one.

Me? I'm going to laugh myself to sleep now.

How NOT to start a car in the dead of winter

2008-12-20T23:18:00.004-07:00

I discovered that there is a proper way to operate a block heater. It involves a cord that is plugged into the block heater cord, and a functioning power circuit for the extension cord to connect to!

The first I discovered when we went out to the car around 1pm, with the intention of gettig some Christmas shopping done. How Foolish! The car was a frozen solid block of steel! Hence I tried the connection, which was not in place, and Caitlin and Rini and I all went to the park while Elene charged. When we returned, we found her UNPLUGGED. Now I understand that the car consumes a substantial amount of power when connected to the block heater, but know this, IF THE CAR IS TO FUNCTION IN TEMPERATURES OF MINUS HELL FROZEN OVER, IT NEEDS TO BE PLUGGED IN!

After this brief frustation, I used my super heated breath, at a temperature 60 degrees Celcius warmer than the air surrounding us, to melt the snow and ice that was in the plug, and connected it with all my might.

I return an hour later, just to see if this is working at all, and the engine refused to turn over. In fact it refused to do pretty much any thing aside from a dull 'Ruh ruh ruh ruh ruh,' which sounded awfully pathetic.

With the wisdom that it requires at least two hours for the engine to be sufficiently warm to function in the temperature, I returned to my humble basement abode to warm my tingling fingertips and everything else that was starting to freeze. More time passes, and we inform some of our friends that we will not be attending their Christmas party, and I go out into the frigid cold to attempt to bring Elene out of the frozen prison that has encased her. Alas, I am met with failure yet again.

At this point, I notice that there has been no change whatsoever in the sound of the engine each time I have tried the ignition. I would have though that three or four hours would be plenty of time to toastify the block and fluids inside. I inspect the cord, and everything seems fine. Nevertheless, I switch out the cord, with the hope that this new cord will function slightly better.

I then call the home of the other party we were hoping to attend tonight, and inform them that I was cancelling my RSVP. A bit of a bother, since I was hoping to get in touch with some people that I haven't seen in litterally years, but such is the arrangement, that it was not to be.

I have heard this said by others and myself, "Always listen to your wife." Caitlin asked me if I had checked the circuit breaker, or maybe she told me there was no way that we were going to make the party because we would have had to turn around and come home when we got there. One or the other. In any case, I checked the breaker next, and sure enough, there was a trip. With a flick of the switch, I headed back out to check on the car and the motion detector light that was on the same circuit. Wouldn't you know, I killed two birds with one stone. I don't know if Elene will start now, but I do know that the light is now operational.

What did we learn? My neighbour doesn't quite understand how a block heater works and it is possible to trip a breaker using a block heater.

Most wonderful time...

2008-12-16T23:07:00.001-07:00

For a beer! I need to get me some Allen & Wright to have in a frosted
mug. Mmmm...

I mention this because one of my co-workers went to West Ed on Dec 6,
first saturday in december, hoping to do some Christmas shopping.
Once he saw the crowds, he and his buddies decided to go to Hooters
and drink some beer. Then they braved the mall again, only to turn
around, go back to Hooters and drink more beer. After they had
quaffed their beverages, they decided to pick up and leave, hit a
liqour store, and go home. Now that is a holiday tale, no?

That the best thing that I could think of for the moment. Since I
was sick yesterday, work piled up a bit and I stayed late. I'll
probably stay late again in order to try to catch up with the workload
we have before the end of the year. Only nine working days left!
Actually, it's more like eight because we all know that Dec 24 and Dec
31 are going to be short days. It still beats the workload I had last
year, and I don't have to worry about people stealing hundreds of
dollars worth of merchendise.

Time for bed.

Power shift

2008-12-11T22:33:00.002-07:00

We've had Elene, our 1986 Hyundai Excel, in our family for close to a year now, and it has taken me a while to get used to her. She has a standard transmission, so that was a chore to learn. However, last Friday, one of my co-workers told me something about a standard transmission that I knew previously, but had forgotten. This was the simple matter of how to do a power shift or proper shift. The clutch is only used to drop the car into first gear, and from first to second. After that, you don't need the clutch to change gears, and you're better off not using the clutch. That being said, that reminds me of 'Little Miss Sunshine,' where a repairman tells them the exact same thing that I just wrote! This is because their clutch burns out, and they have to push the vehicle to get some speed, then the dad puts the car into third, turns on the ignition, and then everyone jumps into the van. Rather funny to watch actually!

But in the past few days, I have been trying to power shift. Sometimes to lesser success. Caitlin has become rather irritated with my endevour, and it reminds me of when I was attempting to master a certain maneuver in Super Mario Bros. My siblings would get annoyed with me as I tried again and again, telling me that I could just jump over the obstacle instead of trying to slide under it. I kept trying and trying, and eventually I was able to pull it off quite easily. I think the only purpose of that was a lesson in perseverance. Then again, I learned lessons in adversity while on my mission, and while training for the triathlons I ran back in 2002. Getting my engineering degree, despite the fact that I was diagnosed with a mental disorder, was another matter of perseverance. And now, I'm a daddy. Father. Papa... I like daddy best. Maybe dad, but father sounds a bit austere.

Like any type of new lesson, it requires hard work, and sticking at it. Of course it does help if you get pointers from people who know what the heck they are doing! If it wasn't for Eric's bit on how he was very slow on the clutch when he was on hills, I probably never would have figured out how to do a smooth start. I'm still slow on the clutch release on the start, but it works better if you go slower than faster. The car likes you better for it. As for power shifting, I think it would be a little bit easier if the car had a tachometer. As it is, and how it's always been, I have to listen to the engine to know when it's time to shift. The speedometer helps too, but for the more part, I have to listen to the engine to know when she's ready to climb to another gear. On a bicycle, it's easy to know when the gear you're in is the proper one, or if you have to shift higher or lower. You're legs tend to communicate rather well with your brain. But with a car, you don't quite have that kind of connection. It's more of a sensation of how fast you're going, and you need to be able to sense that you've plateaued. The only way to go faster is if you gear up. When you're slowing down, you need to be able to sense if the engine is working to hard, and you need to gear down to prevent the engine from blowing itself apart. Listening to the engine is a big part of it, especially without the tach, but it's also a certain bit of driver intuition. I'm still working on that.

I have a feeling that parenting is going to be a lot like that as well. When I'm in neighbourhoods, you have to go a little bit slower, and by so doing, there's not much point to bring her higher than third. On the thoroughfare roads, I can pop her into fourth, and she motors along well. On the highway, she needs fifth, or else we are not going to get very far very quickly. Pulling into the alley, she needs to be in second to accommodate for the low speed. There will be times when Rini needs to take things slow, so she can get used to things, and then she can jump into the higher gears. But I can't control this little girl like I can a car. She's going to grow up, live her own life, and I hope that I'll still have a part in it. It might not be a very big part, but I'll still be there.

Somewhere.

As long as I remember that my wife is still the most important person in my life, aside from God, I'm sure I'll do well. Next to my own family, she's the only person I've spent this much time with, and been this honest with. I do look forward to spending the rest of my life and beyond with her, but we will have to go through numerous changes as time goes by.

I just started reading "The Celestial City," by Chad Daybell, the second book in a series of five that follows the story of three couples in the final days. Call me a sucker for doomsday stories, but this one has a different tone to it. The author has a disclaimer at the beginning of both books stressing that this is a work of fiction. Although he does use some parts from scriptures and prophecies, the books are still works of fiction, and should not be treated as any type of prophetic diction. It still makes you question what is really important in your life. It makes you wonder, if you were told to leave immediately with minimal amounts of food and clothing, and flee for your life, would you do it? Would you get on board the ark? Would you help build an ark in a time of plenty? Would you build a food storage against the storms to come? At what point do you draw the line in the sand of morality? Would you kill someone in defense, or pleasure? If you were part of an ethnic cleansing, how would you feel if you were the hunter? Or the hunted?

It's frightening to think about, and a lot of people don't think about it, because they prefer to not imagine the horror attributed to the decisions, or the circumstances that would require such choices to be made. I am quite sure that there are a number of people who think the doom sayers are full of it, but there will come a day when you will stand before your maker to account for what you did in your life. I call him Jesus Christ. You can call him Buddha, or Jehovah, or Yahweh, or whatever name you like, but there will come a day when you will realize that Jesus is the Christ. At that point, you may still not choose to accept him, and I am quite sure he will not pressure you otherwise. We all have our agency to choose to be who we will be, and by making that choice, we also choose the consequences. If you push something, it will push back, Newton's third law.

Perhaps I've said too much.

I'm going to sleep now. I have work tomorrow.

Slippery slope

2008-12-10T23:19:00.001-07:00

I was hoping that I would be able to edit the letter that I wrote to
my brother-in-law, and then head off to bed, but using iPaq for
writing leaves some things to be desired. First off, I couldn't get
the whole thing on one page. Something about the way that gmail works
with iPaq. At least it works, of else I would have quite the time
posting these entries. Sure I could do it from the rig. but something
about writing in bed is so much more comfortable. Besides, that means
that I can snuggle while I write, and that's always better for Caitlin
and myself. Happy Wife, Happy Life. Words to live by.

In any case, I wrote about Rini's first sledding adventure, but the
second adventure was a bit crazier, and not quite as ideal... First
off, we got a new sled. If anyone has seen my facebook status, you
would know what I think of it. Needless to say, I don't really want
to hang onto it, because it pulls to the right, is really hard to
control, and it threw me every time I went on a run. It threw Rini
too, and she wasn't prepared for it! She got her first facewash, and
I can't say that I was happy about that. Neither was she. After that
incident, she was ready to go home, and announced that with vigor.

Maybe we could live with just the crazy carpet, but I would like to
have a sled that all three of us could go on a run with. There is a
wooden folding sled I saw at Zellers, and it was about $40. I could
put that on the Christmas wish list.

The other fun thing is the fact that life has got a bit more fun at
work. The three month mark has passed, and that means two things.
Evaluation! and RAISE! HIGH WOOTAGE! I don't know when that will
kick in, but for the moment, I'll just have to see on Monday.

I'm off to play some online cash cab!

Done

2008-12-04T00:13:00.001-07:00

November is done, and so is NaNoWriMo. What a month. I was quite
confident that I was going to write 50k this year, and despite some
setbacks, and writer's block, I actually succeeded. It was really
crazy that last little bit after I crossed 45k. That last 5k was like
a 'writer's high' you could say, because I didn't think that the story
was coming to an end, in fact it was only the beginning. I had just
gotten into the characters, and the original story line was still
there, but it had spawned into something else entirely. Characters
that I had never thought of popped up and guided the story in a way I
never considered. And the fact that Caitlin was able to write with me
this year was fabulous. Rini had her way of helping us too, but most
of the writing we did when she was asleep. Yes, I had a LOT of late
nights. And I had quite a few naps when I got home bone tired from
work!

The funny thing is that when I was heading off to work on Monday, 1
Dec 2008, the first official day after NaNoWriMo 2008, I was feeling a
little down because it was over for another year. Then 'Good
Riddance' by Green Day started playing on the radio. It was the first
time in recent memory that I cried when I heard a song on the radio.
Everyone usually gushes at the chorus, "It's something unpredictable/
but in the end it's right/ I hope you had the time of your life," but
for me, one of the versus struck a chord. "Another turning point, a
fork stuck in the road/ Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where
to go/ So make the best of this test and don't ask why/ It's not a
question, but a lesson learned in time."

Writing and parenting seem to have one thing in common. The only way
you can truly learn how to do it, is to do it. There is no equal
substitute for experience, and that's something I learned from doing
NaNoWriMo. Last year, I enjoyed writing, although I really had no
idea what I was writing, and I really mangled my original idea like I
couldn't believe. The story that I've read I have not been able to
read over again, at least not in one sitting. I've heard some parts
here and there, but that's the long and short of it. The story itself
is ridiculous, and not very coherent.

I'm not going to send my 2008 work off to a publisher right away, but
at least it's something that I'm a bit more proud of. I may revisit
it later, and try to finish it up. Until that time, I'm going to get
ready for the Christmas Party on Friday. Caitlin and I are going to
be singing "Once in Royal David's City" and we've been asked if we
could perform another song. I just now got the idea of a 12 days of
Christmas song, somehow tied into parenting. I'll have to mention it
to Caitlin and see if she'll help me with the writing.

Or maybe I'll do it tomorrow once I've had some sleep!

Notice of dearth

2008-11-06T23:59:00.001-07:00

Haven't posted for awhile, and it's going to be like that for most of the month. NaNoWriMo has started, and I have a little over 7k under my belt so far. Still have a long way to go, and I was seriously slacking today. Need to get over the whole writer's block, take the story wherever I can for the moment, and keep it going. I really want to hit 50k this year!

Boom de yadda

2008-10-28T22:01:00.001-06:00

I do the the whole wide world. I just work better when I get enough
sleep. The meds will only do so much, but getting sufficient sleep
helps a lot! Helps me stay awake, and much less cranky. I can't say
that it's Rini's fault, because we put her down to be around 9pm, and
then I can head off to bed within an hour from then. Not a lot of
time to ourselves, but it is something. Hence I have the idea that it
would be better to get up earlier in the morning to do writing. But
then I would have to get up earlier, and I don't do well with that!

NaNotime cometh

2008-10-27T23:12:00.001-06:00

I had a bit of a disagreement with my inlaws this weekend. Kind of
silly that I could call it an agruement, it was more of a difference
of opinion, and I did not back down. The disagreement was about
Daylight Savings Time. When does it start, and when does it end? End
doesn't really matter, because that's in the spring. In the fall,
that had changed in recent years.

It used to be the last weekend in October, and then the first weekend
in April. I remember that it would be announced in General Priesthood
session in April Conference, but that is not to be anymore. Or who
knows... Maybe the next president will think that we need to change it
back to the way it was. You never know.

But when Caitlin and I dropped off her rings at Jedco, we took a look
at their calendar, and it said that next weekend, Nov 2, is when the
clock change occurs. I was quite sure of this, because it is
mentioned in the NaNoWriMo schedule of events. That is why I was so
sure that it was no longer in October.

And I was right. I got to work on time today because I didn't change
the clocks. Mind, Fall isn't the difficult one to work with, because
you gain an hour. The one day of the year where you can actually live
your life over again, for an hour. The one time of the year when you
can tell someone, "I just ate twenty minutes from now." Ah yes. Good
times.

The things you think of when you are tired.

Just barely four days until the fingers start to fly.

Now that all the hard work, work is done

2008-10-24T22:09:00.000-06:00

It was a bit of a hustle to get things done at work today. I stayed a little bit later, but I didn't mind. First of all, the bank was open until 5pm today, so I didn't miss the deposit deadline. I made another batch today, and that was the fourth deposit batch I had done this week! Craziness! Today, I put in three of those four, because the past two days I had missed the 4pm deadline. I would have made it yesterday, but I figured I had loads of time, and I should open some mail before I left. I should have just left a little early and made the drop! Silly!

It was also a push to get some remittances wrapped up. Little did I know, we need to submit numbers every week, on Friday, and those numbers are based on the invoiced remittances. The remittances get invoiced after I reconcile them. Oops. Mercifully, I'm getting better at my job, so I was able to plow through the dozen or so I had left before I retired for the weekend. I felt very satisfied with how much work I had done today! I certainly hope that I'm going to be worth a raise when employee evaluation comes around in December.

Sometimes I wonder how I'm going to manage writing a novel next month, but then I remember that I just have to cut out all TV viewing, and I should be fine. I'm also going to have to find some time to write when Rini is off in snoozeville, because I can't concentrate very well when there is a screeching child in the background. Hard to concentrate to say the least. I was thinking that writing in the early morning would work best, but that would mean getting out of bed early in the morning! Woof. I could do it, maybe. I have a hard enough time getting out of bed by 6:30am, so getting up at 5am? That would be a bit much. Artist have to be willing to starve for their art though, and it's a matter of how bad do you want it.

My story is really awesome, and I would really like to be able to finish 50k this year. We will have to see. And attend a lot of write ins. The 17 hour write in would be a rush to participate in, but I don't know how long I would be able to stay awake! Plus, we have Rini, so if Caitlin and I went, we would have to leave Rini with someone else, and... it just wouldn't work logistically. We might be able to do participate via the chat room, and we might be able to stop by the library for a time, but we would be able to be there for the entirety from midnight o'clock to seventeen o'clock. That would be fun, but no. Maybe when Rini is thirteen, but then we might have other children to worry about. CRUMBLEBEES!

Maybe I just have to accept that I'm not as young as I used to be.

Exhaust of life

2008-10-23T19:56:00.002-06:00

Normally I don't like eating out, but food does cheer me up if I'm in a grumpy mood, according to my wife, and she is usually right! This time around, I was not cheering up after food, and I haven't got much sleep in the past few days. Caitlin deduced, in her infinite wifely and womanly wisdom, that I am in need of some rest.

It's recommended that you stock up on thngs in preparation for NaNoWriMo, and I would think that sleep would be one of the biggest things. I was thinking that I would get up at about 5am in order to get my writing time before I go to work. These days, I'm getting up at 6:30am, and that's a bit of a struggle. I was getting out of bed at 6am before, but then I started driving to work, and I didn't need that much time to commute. I could ride my bike, which would work for doing deposits as well, but driving is good for the winter.

Yesterday, I talked with Morgan for a bit in order to figure out the story behind the Mark of Cain. Turns out that it was more of a blessing - the mark - so that people would know not to kill Cain, lest the curse of fields, which was placed upon him for punishment for killing his brother Abel, would come upon the person who kills him. That being said, the curse would come seven fold upon whoever slew Cain. Suffice it to say, I learned a lot, including the fact that it is not the best idea to use Mormon Doctrine First Edition for study, and the Pearl of Great Price has a much better explanation as to why Cain slew Abel. In the Bible, it seems like they went out to the field and "I keel you!" Next thing we read, he's denying the fact that he knows he committed fratricide. Still have a lot to learn about this.

It's all coming together

2008-10-21T22:53:00.002-06:00

Last night was the plot-planning party for NaNoWriMo, which was held as early as it was since the kick-off party is more of a fun fest rather than a serious 'Let's think about writing' get-together. But in any case, Rini was running around like a little hellion, and distracting people high and low. The interesting comment that Rini received was "She's not so 'femto' anymore!" Rini is not exactly the 'FemtoWriMo' anymore, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that she has graduated to the rank of 'PicoWriMo' until she can write her name.

But I have developed an insane amount of plot, and I have a really strong story now. I was struggling to piece together the Time-travelling element, so I had to write out a time line, and then draw arrows all over the place. I'm not sure that I would be able to revamp everything should I lose those pieces of paper that have the notes from my dreams and the time line, because I know some people are able to hold everything inside of their head. Yeeeehaeh. Not me. One of the reasons that I wasn't able to finish last year was because I didn't know where I was going with the book. The story was just... going... somewhere. I had no idea where, and it was somewhat annoying. If I have a skeleton that I can fashion the story to conform to, I'm quite sure that I'll be able to work better, stronger, and faster. Then again, another thing that went haywire with the story last time was that the original idea wasn't that clear, and once I started writing, I wasn't sure what I was writing, but I knew that it wasn't was I originally had in mind. And I had to force myself to keep it PG-13. Although I would have enjoyed writing some truly horrid scenes, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I wanted to write something that I wouldn't be afraid of someone finding out that I wrote it, and I would like to read it sometime later in my life with my children. I know a novel is not exactly a bedtime story, but you get the idea. If not, I'm surprised you are reading this blog.

I'm not really keen on divulging details about what I have, but to summarize it quickly, it's a time travel bittersweet romance story. And I'm not sure about the bittersweet part, I just thought it would be a cool word to boost my word count.

It is starting already, and in ten days, the real fun begins, and blog entries will probably get shorter!

Does this mean we have to move again?

2008-10-19T23:13:00.001-06:00

I just got news today that a friend of mine is moving out of the ward,
and out of the stake! He and his family are moving to Riverbend, to a
bigger home, which they do need. I'm really sad to see him go,
because it was such a blessing to not only have him in the ward, but
to have him as our hometeacher.

I've heard that the only thing constant in life is change, but the
other thing to keep in mind is the need to accept change. I'm sure if
we wanted to we could move out to Riverbend to be in the same ward,
but Caitlin would prefer to get a home in this end of the city, if not
in Millwoods.

Plus, we heard word about a new program from the government in which
you could have you mortgage paid for by renting out your basement to
mentally and/or physically challenged people. The government is
getting rid of group homes, and in their place they are setting up a
subsidization program for those who rent out a suite to
mentally/physically challenged people. I'm sure that there is a
certain amount of screening that you have to go through, and then
there's also the issue of OWNING A HOUSE. Small details, I'm sure.
Still, if we can save up enough for a down payment, I would think that
would be half the battle.

It was also interesting putting everything together for chruch today.
Usually, I just pop iPaq into my pocket, and away we go. However,
iPaq's battery was a little low, so we went with ye olde books. I
thought we were fine, I had a triple combination, my Kaine Diatheke,
and my priesthood manual. Good thing I checked that, because I
discovered that the manual was not this years 'Joseph Smith' manual,
but rather last years 'Spencer W. Kimbal.' Oops. Fortunately, I was
able to get a manual at church, and I hung onto it. You know, in case
I need it for next time.

Uses for the rig

2008-10-19T00:15:00.001-06:00

I must say that our desktop computer is really starting to irritate
me. It was bad enough when we had dial up, but now we have a virus on
our computer. The worst is when you are trying to play a video, and
the virus keeps inturupting the stream. It worked great for
conference, but any other video, it is like watching really bad
stop-motion.

Today, I tried to load a video onto Facebook. Big mistake. I would
have had better luck filling a sieve with sand. After I decided to
give up on that, I figured I would send a message to someone, with an
attached website address. Putting the address in the message attaches
a preview of the website, and hence bogs down the bandwidth. Or just
makes the comptuer think really hard. Either way, it was going slower
than molasses going uphill in January on crutches.

Eventually, I just shut down the rig and pulled out Dory. I had the
message sent in five minutes. I didn't try posting the video, but
I'll give that a try some other time.

I also did a training exercise for NaNoWriMo this morning. I sat down
with iPaq and pounded out a continuation of last years NaNoWriMo
story. I was rather impressed that I was able to get out 1488 words
in an hour, even with all the distractions I had to deal with.

Part way through the hour that I had decided to write, Rini woke up,
and in order to cut down on the amount of time I would be getting away
from the keyboard, I opened her door a crack. She has yet to master
opening doors with doorknobs, but she can pull on them just fine. She
can get out of bed by herself now, so if she can get out of her
bedroom by herself, all the better. She tried climbing onto my lap,
but I invited her to get up on the chair beside me instead.
Remarkably, she actually did it! Then she got bored about three
minutes later, or sooner since I wasn't really keeping track of the
time, and went about the family room making a mess and trying to
entertain herself. I did get up when she pulled Zeus the moose onto
her head. I'm not sure why I decided to put that Juniper Moose on top
of her toy box, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I would wonder if i have the dedication to do this, since I focus on
my writing to the point that I put my child in danger. True artists
are willing to suffer for their work, but making others suffer? Mind,
I did get up and hold her after Zeus pinned her. I'm not entirely
heartless to the point that I just get the moose off her, scold her
for doing something so dangerous, and then get back to writing.

Besides, you save more time by taking time to comfort her. If I had
done the idiot thing and just do the minimal work needed to make sure
she wasn't dead, that would be bad parenting.

Elene is not dead yet

2008-10-17T22:13:00.001-06:00

Actually, Elene is far from dead, but I was a little worried about the
steering, hence she went into Speedy yesterday. I took Bikey to work,
and was able to get to Speedy in time to pick her up before close.
Turns out that the steering is fine, the wheel alignment is good, and
the radio just had a burnt fuse. So, all that work cost $80. If I
went to Crappy Tire, I'm sure they would have wanted at least three
times that, and they would have tried to do the alignment anyway.
That, and the guys at Speedy have been working on cars for longer than
Elene has been around, so I trust them to take good care of her.

Still, in the end, it sounds like an awful lot of money to fix a fuse!
But the amount of work that it took to figure out that it was the
fuse? I think it was worth it.

I was also educated about how the wheel positioning works. Since I
have front wheel drive, the axels are different lenghts. Nothing to
do about that, it's part of the design. However, that will get a bit
of a pull to the left. The pull to the right can be due to road
grade, which is supposed to be 7%, but with the roads that we have
right now, it can be 15% or so. Also the steering wheel may be a
little off center. Happens. Another thing that Eric mentioned was
that it could also be due to unequal tire pressure. I'm going to get
Elene's tires done on Monday. I wanted to get them done on Thursday,
but things got a little busy, and I had to rush off. Bleh.

The irony is that driving home, although I just paid $80 to fix the
radio, I didn't turn it on. Too used to the silence, and I didn't
know how to turn it on.

What can the matter be

2008-10-16T22:21:00.001-06:00

I just dropped off Elene at Speedy today to see if there is anything
the matter with her wheel alignment, and from what the guys at Speedy
said, there is probably something loose. I thought the steering was
out of alignment, because I have to hold the wheel over to the left in
order for her to go straight. I haven't noticed any uneven wear on
the tires, so I didn't think much of it. But some of my coworkers say
otherwise, and I figured I could also figure out what's wrong with the
power connection to the radio. How much is this going to cost?
Hopefully not much. I did just get paid, but I would like to save
some money.

And the beat goes on

2008-10-15T22:41:00.001-06:00

Although there was a lot of things that happened today, I can't help
but feel it was not an extra-ordinary day.

Mind, we all went to Wal-Mart for the first time in about a year, in
order to use the gift certificates from Jess and Chris. We got a
couple of movies that we've been meaning to pick up. I was trying to
see if there was a PS2 game that caught my eye, but nothing drew me
in. Most of the movies at Wal-Mart didn't jump out at me either, but
there were a few that caught my eye. The Black Cauldron, The
Aristocats, and we also got a Christmas present for Erik as well.
Yes, we are actually doing some advance shopping this time around!

I picked up Caitlin's workout bra yesterday, and today she went and
got a one month membership at Millwoods Rec Center. She immediately
put both to use, and has plans to continue attending for the next 30
days. Probably three times a week, if not more. Bonus if she can go
everyday, but we'll see how that works. How it is right now, Rini and
I will have some daddy-daughter time while Caitlin goes to work out.
I wonder how this is going to work next month, with NaNoWriMo going
on. I guess we'll see!

The Vote is Cast

2008-10-14T22:47:00.001-06:00

Really tired tonight. Tired to the point that I was falling asleep at
work today. Not good.

By the time I went to vote I was plenty awake, and I had to be, since
I was chasing around Rini for a good part of the time that we were at
the polling station! I'm not sure if she fully understood why we were
there, but she enjoyed the time outside!

Meeting with my folks

2008-10-13T22:52:00.003-06:00

It was weird to think that I hadn't seen my parents in close to a year when we went to visit today, but the last time we visited was back in January for Ukrainian Chirstmas! We really don't have any excuse, because we have Elene now, and we visit the Tolleys at least twice a month, if not more! Plus, gas is dropping in price.

We were talking with our sister-in-law and got her excited for NaNoWriMo. She's going to sign up as soon as she can, and she's got an idea that she is going to be running with. She also lives quite close to the Strathcona library, so she might be heading over there for some events, when she's not buried in homework! Studies do come first. Still, it's awesome that we have someone else on board for the writing frenzy!

The story of Dory and iPaq

2008-10-11T22:24:00.002-06:00

For the first time in my life, I bought a new computer. That is really weird to say that, because I just realized that it's true. All the computers that I have owned previously have either been purchased second hand, or refurbished models, or received as gifts. The rig that we have now, I could say that I received it as a gift, because I did help with the construction of it, but I didn't buy any of the pieces to it, expect for the DVD-R drive. I've bought pieces of computers, but never an entire unit.

Weird.

Nevertheless, the computer that I did purchase, wasn't even for me. I bought it for Caitlin, and some would disagree that it's a computer. It's classified as a 'Netbook' by Future Shop and a 'Mobile Internet Device' by The Source by Circuit City. It's full name proper is the Acer Aspire One.

We call it 'Dory' or 'Little Blue' because it's... well, small... and blue.

Wonderful little device with a 9" screen, 120 GB Hard Drive, wifi b/g, and runs on 512 MB RAM with the Intel Atom processor. Truth be known, the RAM sounds a little low, but the OS is Linux, which doesn't need much in the way of operating memory. The Battery life could have something to be desired, it's only good for two hours, but the fact that Caitlin can but it in her purse, and it works with the mini-mouse that I've hung onto for about three years. I picked it up when I went to the press conference announcing the name change of the Edmonton Space and Science Center, which had already been changed to Oddysium, to Telus World of Science Edmonton. The mouse is super small, like size of your thumb small, but it works well with a small computer. It's really cute, and functional. Caitlin just needed something to write with, play games, check email, internet browsing, and play Pogo.com. That last one, I need to do some fixing with that one. I just need to get a Java client for Linux, which is super easy, and away we go!

iPaq is taking a back seat next to Dory, but that was bound to happen. I'm still going to use iPaq, it's really great for what I need right now. It does what I need for portable computing, and the big things, like burning picture CDs for my parents, can be done using the rig. I didn't need to got a $2000 pack of cards for Caitlin!

Does this mean I'm old now?

2008-10-11T22:13:00.001-06:00

Late Post - should have been posted yesterday, but I was too tired to move it from iPaq.
********************************************
It's sort of odd that I'm thirty years old now, but only when I think about it. At the same time, it's odd to think about it! When you're a teenager, you think 30 is old, then when you approach that age, you don't think about it, sometimes to the point that you pick an age and stick with it. Women merely 'gain experience' after they turn 29, while men tend to have twelve years experience of being 18 once they hit the big 3-0.

So what's my secret? Meh. There's no secret, just gotta take it a day at a time, and focus on the important things. Mind you, that's changed over the years too. Ten years ago, well, I was on my mission, so the thing I wanted most was mail from home. Twenty years ago, it was Nintendo for sure. Some kind of game and lots of time to play it. Alright, somethings haven't changed because we got a PS2 game, but it's a karaoke High School Musical game. I'm kind of past the whole Mario phase, although I wouldn't mind playing Mario Kart Wii. Truthfully, I wanted to get it so that Caitlin and I would be able to play together. Funny thing is she sings better than me. According to the game at least. I just need practise, and it's a game that she doesn't mind me playing with Rini around. Rock Band would be fun, but 'Enter Sandman' isn't exactly the most kid friendly song out there. We'll just have to visit the Brooks more, and see how they react to HSM:Sing It!

The Wheel of Time turns

2008-10-08T23:06:00.001-06:00

Tonight will be the last night that I will be under 30. As of
tomorrow, I will have circled the sun thirty times, and to think I
used to think that I'd be old by now.

Ok, so I'm losing my hair, but aside from that I'm happily married,
the father of a beautiful daughter, and I have a steady job that's
keeping my family fed.

Still, three decades is a long time. I'm not the same person I was
ten years ago. I could say thank goodness for that! I'm not sure if
Caitlin would have still married me if I was the arrogant twat I was
before my mission. Hmmm... maybe I haven't changed that much.

I mentioned that my birthday is tomorrow, and my boss got an odd smile
on his face. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I
trust it should be something... good. I hope.

Little upgrade

2008-10-07T22:34:00.001-06:00

Once upon a while ago, I saw a crazy deal at Honour Computers, and I
went in and bought a 1GB stick of DDR2 RAM. Whee! What a deal! Then
I get home, and the blasted thing wouldn't fit. I tried pushing,
rearranging, cleaning, lining up slots perfectly, but it was after
about ten minutes I finally realized that the computer was compatible
with DDR RAM, not DDR2. I couldn't just throw it out. It was still
good, I just couldn't use it for my computer.

Good thing I hung onto it, because I just traded it for 1GB of DDR
RAM. I thought that I could use these two 512MB sticks in tandem with
my other 512MB stick to give the computer 1.5GB of RAM. That didn't
work. Although there are three RAM slots, the computer would only
read two, and I couldn't figure out which two! So the 'puter has 1GB
now, which is a bit of a step up from the 768MB which it had
previously. But I know the computer would run faster if I could
figure out how to get rid of the virus on there! Maybe I should just
get a Mac. That, or I'll be using iPaq more than I am already! And
that's saying something.

Get ready to Write and Roll!

2008-10-06T23:09:00.001-06:00

I finally took a look at the notes I made on some dreams I had back in
June. I'm very glad that I wrote down as much as I would think of,
because I realized that I forgot a lot of details: the calendar wall,
who said what, character descriptions, teleportation, the
'Koble-Bjoti' switch, and the radio equipment. This is shaping up to
be an excellent story.

Plus, I found some notes I took on another one of Cailtin's dreams,
and she thought it was one of mine, because she didn't remember
telling me about this dream. I'm glad I dated when it was I wrote all
those details down!

Speaking of crazy stories, Caitlin and I sat down to watch some
'Heroes' tonight. I know that there is another episode on right now,
but that's what VCRs are for. Yes, VHS is an ancient concept, but it
still works! Plus, I figured I could afford to plunk down $20 for a
few cassettes rather than $500+ for a PVR. Not as nice, not as
convenient, but within our price range. I suppose the fact that we
got the recorder for free adds another level of frugality to it.

But I am certainly intrigued by some of the story twists that have
occured so far. I'm not sure how Season 2 went, but I heard that it
was pretty bad. What do you expect? It was right before the Writer's
strike! Of course you're going to get cream of the crap! I'm
thinking of renting it from Roger's a disc at a time, or just save $5
a week, and then go and buy it. Torn am I. Do I want to use my
finances to procure something that I'm quite sure I'll enjoy, but may
be not worth my investment? I did buy "Bring It On," but I got it
used, and it is slated for resell, as soon as I get that box off to EB
Games or something.

Plans and Projects

2008-10-04T23:41:00.001-06:00

While Caitlin is pounding away at her sewing project, I busied myself
with setting up our computer to receive conference today. It worked
very well, and we will probably so it again in April. Fun times!

I worked on my novel for NaNoWriMo. You can't do any writing, but you
can do planning in November. I was using a quiz that I found on
facebook. Someone had filled it out because they were bored, and I'm
assuming that someone wrote it because they were bored. It was enough
to get my mind rolling and thinking about what I wanted in my Main
Character. It also made me think about character and plot dynamics.
I know there are still a lot of things to work out, but if I can get
the story in my head, and most importantly a destination, then I can
see myself pounding out much more than 50k next month.

I just need to find a story that needs to be told. Or at least one
that I want to tell.

I met a facinating person today. I believe his name was Peter Jarvis,
and I believe he works for the U of A. Industrial designer by trade,
he had quite a few stories about how the trade came to be, and how U
of A got the faculty. In the days of Henry Ford, where you could get
your box on wheels in any colour, so long as it was black, the
automotive industry had hit a standstill. So they went to the
cartoonists and asked them to draw them a car. This drawing was then
taken to the shop, and now we have parking lots filled with different
models of boxes with wheels. And they come in black along with a
variety of all the other colours of the rainbow. He also knows Steve
Drake. THE Steve Drake. Rather amazing that Steve was given the keys
to one of the most powerful computers in the country at the time, and
three months to figure out how the thing works so that he and two
other collegues could start teaching about it. No pressure! Mr.
Jarvis also told me about the MLM known as Discovery Toys. Litlte did
I know, that Mom tolley has a bunch of discovery toys games. I'll
have to remind her to dig them out for us tomorrow.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

2008-10-03T23:12:00.001-06:00

I always like to think that fall is the most wonderful time of the year, and that may be entirely of the fact that my birthday lands during that time. This time around I'm going to be celebrating the end of my third decade upon this planet, and when I think about it, it seems a little weird. Thirty years old! Does that mean I'm old now? Older, that's for sure, but I can see how some people think that life beings at 40, or so they hope.

Another wonderful time of the year is General Conference. This year I'll actually be able to attend all sessions, and I hope to take full advantage of it. Knowing me, the biggest challenge will be staying awake, but I do hope to take away some good experience, and something to work on.

I can't help but think of what November will bring though. NaNoWriMo was quite the experience, and although I haven't taken much of a look at the 42,000 words that I managed to pound out during those harried 30 days, I really want to do it again. This time with a bit more of a plan. I know that the biggest part of NaNo is to have fun. At the same time, I actually would like to write a coherent story this time around. The biggest help to that would be having a good outline. I was reading about an interesting way to make an outline using something called a "Phase outlne." Really helps to have the plot and character development in place and then you can just concentrate on word output. Right now, all I have is a title, an idea, and a few notes about a dream I had. If I can work that into an outline, then I'll have some hope.

Then again, I might get another great idea, and run with that! Yeah, I don't think so either.

The blog shall rise again

2008-09-30T23:19:00.002-06:00

I'm quite sure that traffic has come to a halt on this site, and I'm going to make an effort to change that. I have been updating my other blog quite routinely this past week, and I wondered why I don't do that with this one. The simple reason was because I didn't know what the mobile posting address was. Now that I do, I'm going to make a much larger effort to so.

That and November is coming soon.

Scripture-osity

2008-05-16T23:57:00.002-06:00

Some might argue that everything at Generations is horrendously overpriced, but today, Caitlin and I spent about $50, and with that we were able to get: three books; "Where The Red Fern Grows" on DVD (purchase, not rent); a baby book for the Rini-Beany; an emergency blanket.

One of the books is entitled, "Please Pass the Scriptures." I grabbed it when we came into the store, yet I almost put it back. In the end, we did take it, and I'm glad we did. It's a very informative read about how you can improve your scripture study, and from the sounds of the first bit, how you can improve your attitude towards scripture study. The author recommends that you don't read the book cover-to-cover all at once, but rather work your way through it, chapter by chapter. I say "work", because there are assignments at the end of each chapter. The first one being, write a journal entry about the importance of scripture study. I may rely on the material I just read, but that just means I agree with what the author said. That, and I don't plan on publishing this for money.

Scripture study is something that I've known is important for years. Most of my life I have known that scriptures have an importance. I remember on my mission I was feeling less than worthy of my call at one point, and I came across a verse in Helaman when Samuel the Lamanite was on the city wall berating the Nephites. At least I think it was. I just read through Helaman 13 and 14 and I could find anything that I remember jumping out at me. This time around Helaman 13:22 kind of jumped out at me though, and showed where I could use some improvement: Ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things with which he hath blessed you... In the introduction and the first chapter of Pass the Scriptures, there is quite a bit about remembering. Part of our baptismal covenants involve remembering God, and honouring our covenants would require studying the scriptures. Mckay White has even mentioned it to us in numerous home teaching visits that we need to make it more of a habit to study the scriptures. A handy little acronym also helps with the advantages of scripture study. PEACE - Protection, Easier to listen to the Spirit, All things what ye should do, C... was... calming? I can't remember now. I'll have to read it again.

New day, new surprise

2008-05-16T12:33:00.002-06:00

Got back from the interview a couple hours ago, and it was... good. A successful failure I suppose you could call it, because I didn't get the job that I applied for. How do I know? Brother Baker told me. Ender Baker did the interview, but after we were done the job interview, he did something he had never done before and that was analyze the interview with the interviewee immediately after the interview. In his words, "I'm going to take off the hat of Operations Manager, and put on the hat of Ward Employment Specialist." I was a little surprised, but very grateful for the service provided to me. He told me first thing that from the interview, and from what he knows about me, the job as Bilingual Claims Officier would kill me. I would be lying awake at night inside of two months. It's not that they are terrible people, purposely out to ruin people and their livelihoods, but they have to stick to the contract. No matter what. He then told of a recent situation in which a widow called about her car which was not working, needed repair, and was covered under the insurance policy that her husband so wisely purchased. However, she had not taken the car in for an inspection the previous year, and that voided the policy. The lady was in tears, and there was literally nothing they could do except go over the policy, and clairfy why they could not help them.

Doing that in English would be one thing. To do that in french? I don't know. Plus, he's right. I do that at work sometime, and it eats at me. Another reason why I need to find another job.

On that note, Brother Baker said that he would help me with the job search in finding postings that are under my radar, and help me figure what to present in the application (cover letter, resume, and interview). Still haven't told him of my condition, but I'm thinking that it might be a good idea soon. Seeing that I may not be getting employment at his company, I should be alright in telling, but who knows. It does not interfere, and it's under control. No worries.

A new day dawns

2008-05-16T01:14:00.002-06:00

Technically, it's not dawn yet. Somewhere in Eastern Canada maybe, but not here. So I would say that tomorrow is the big day. I have an interview at 9am for a position with Pro-Tech Insurance. I know that my experience with WFG fell flat on its face, but this is a bit diffferent in the fact that you have the clients come to you. Just the idea that it was Amway with Insurance didn't sit well with me, and it REALLY didn't sit well with Caitlin. We also didn't have a car at the time, and that put a serious damper on the feasibility of it. Now we have Elene, our wonderful 1986 Hyundai Excel that Bishop Orr gave to us on March 21, 2008 (have to double check the car log to be sure about that), and on the good days, I should be able to ride my bike. But it's the whole idea of getting into a job that will have hours that will allow me to be a better father and husband. At least that's the hope. Not attending church has really put a damper on me, and that can be a seriously bad thing.

The biggest thing that I have to remember tomorrow is not volunteer my bi-polar. That got me black-balled from Telus, and it is not something that will interfere with the job. I have it under control with medication, meditation, and... sleep.

Funny, Caitlin and I were going over some interview questions, and when we got to the issue of dependability, and what everyone would say, I thought of Free Comic Book Day. First Saturday of May, we went to Happy Harbour Comics, and talked with Ed and Liana (Ed and Red's night party). Through conversation, that was basically Caitlin and Liana going on about costumes, it was mentioned that Liana was an E cup. This fact was mentioned earlier, but I thought that it was said in jest. It was then that I thought it would be best if we went to Dawn's Bra-tique to invest in some undergarments for Caitlin, since she was about the same size as Liana, from my observations. Turns out that I was pretty close, if not correct in my assumption. The real story comes from what Rini and I did.

At one point, we discover that Rini needs a diaper change. Not emergency level, but it would be a good idea. Caitlin and I then realize to our dismay that we had forgotten diapers. And wipes. Lucky for us, Kingsway garden mall was across the street! I head off, baby in arms, and I venture into the mall to find the supplies. First stop, Zellers, where I could not find anything smaller than 80 diapers in a box, and I couldn't find any wipes to boot. So I ventured towards Shoppers Drug Mart. On the way to Shoppers, there are a number of stores, one of them being GameStop. I figured that since Rini's diaper situation wasn't too bad I would stop in there for five minutes. And I did only stop for five minutes! I found Psychonauts for PS2, went to the counter to purchase it, and by the time the cashier had rung the game through, Rini was asleep. When I recounted this story to Mike (manager at Source), he added, "Well, you can still change diapers when they're asleep." At this point I include the thoughts that went through my mind, "Since she's asleep, we don't have to change her diaper right away." With that thought in mind, I went back to Dawn's. You can only imagine what Caitlin's face looked like when I told her that not only was Rini still in the same diaper, but I had not acquired any more, and I had purchased a game. Comment from Mike, "I'm surprised you're here right now. My wife would have killed me!" I think if it wasn't for the fact that we spent over $200 on Caitlin's 'I feel pretty' clothes, she would have been signifigantly more miffed at me.

Well, I need some sleep so I can get ready for tomorrow.

Job Status

2008-05-09T23:57:00.002-06:00

I just got word from the district manager that I'm getting a demotion. Quite frankly, I'm not surprised. I'm going to stay on as AM, even though there are two other people at the store that could do my job, and more often than not perform some of my duties, but I will no longer have the title of Rogers Specialist. Hence I will be turning over my shirts, or I'll keep them, or I'll use them as oil rags. I honestly don't know what's going on in that department. All I know is that I can't wear them at work any longer.

I thought I was going to get the message in person, and I surprised Steve (DM) when I told him that he was the first person to tell me about this demotion. At the same time, I think I might have surprised him when I wasn't in any sort of shock or dismay when he told me about this. Hey, I would do the same thing if I were in his shoes. It's been over a month since I have done any type of cell phone transaction, core or paygo. Quite frankly, I didn't anticipate staying this long, and I'm going to apply for another job very soon. I have to get the application together, and I have to go over some interview stuff. I'll also have to gather some info to see if I can get a reference from others. Need two professional references, and two personal references for the application. I don't think the professional ones would be tough, but the personal... hmmmm... Maybe the bishop and Mckay. I'll have to check on that one.

Had a bit of a freak out at work, because I could find my keys. I had given them to a co-worker so she could open the next day, and I was not told where they went after that. Silly me, I should have thought of looking in the most obvious place, which was the receipt/key drawer. Oops. All's well that ends at 10pm. Time to work tomorrow, and Sunday. Day off Monday, and I hope I can find the schedule!

Minor failure

2008-01-19T19:03:00.001-07:00

I just got word today from Ron that I forgot to do something last night. It wasn't transmitting the time cards, I remembered that. It wasn't pricing, I was pretty on top of that. The thing that I forgot was to ensure that the back door was closed. Of all the places I've worked, Southgate has been the first store to use the back door on a daily basis. Most other stores use the front door exclusively, and I always remember to lock that. In this case, not only was the back door unlocked, it was open. Open to the point that Mall Security noticed it and called Ron. At 10:30pm last night. Major breach of security on my part, and it could even get a finger pointed in my direction as an accomplice to theft. Grounds for immediate dismissal. Why did I not double check that the door was closed? The person I assigned to use the door to get the garbage out was the person I hired and vouched for his personal character. I went to bat for this guy, and I thought that he was capable of closing the door. There's a bit of a trick to it, and I thought that he had it under his belt already, or if he didn't, he would have asked me how to get the door closed. I suppose I'm too trusting, and I haven't learned one of the basis rules of management. Everyone below you is an idiot, and you cannot trust them. I always thought that people had integrity and strength of character and didn't need someone over their shoulder every single step of the way.

Is that the secret to sucess? Use resources to succeed, such as capital and people. Employees are nothing more than ants that gather and distribute. There's no point in thinking of them as anything but.

Ok, I might be getting a little pesemistic here, but I have the most feeling that tomorrow or Monday, I am going to get fired, unless I can present a strong case as to why I should stay on with the Source. My reasons for applying in the first place was simply because a) I needed employment to sustain my family, b) I wanted a job that would be close to home, and c) I liked the idea of working with products that I like, would buy myself, and could recommend to people. I never thought of it as a career after school, although there was a small parallel to what I majored in University. I know there is more to life than doing retail, but when you have someone tell you point blank that he doesn't trust you, and he can't believe that he ever did, that's really low. It doesn't matter that I've never lost my temperment with a customer, or that I do my best with sales and training (of course with the training that would involve proper securing of the back door, now wouldn't that! Hush, trying to make a point), the fact of the matter is that in business, you want more assets than liabilities. If you can get rid of liabilities all together will little to now effect, all the better. It's a matter of business, not personal issues.

I still have a hard time getting over how bitter Ron was when he talked to me today. I've only heard him raise his voice once, and we were getting ready for a visit from upper management.

I thinking if Ron passed this along to the Millwoods manager, where I'll be working tomorrow, or where I'll be fired from as the case may be, but then I realized that he might read this himself.

Ron told me to think about what I'll tell Steve next time I see him. Specifically, why I should remained employed with the company. I just keep thinking about my family, and if I lose the job how very, very screwed we could be. Caitlin's EI ends next month, and as our finances stand right now, we have a burn time of about two months. I'm also one of the most knowledgeable salespeople in Edmonton, and that makes for a great asset to the company. With time I can learn management skills, which was a heavy hat to take.

Speaking of Ron, I just got off the phone with him, and I am now very glad that I pay tithing, was sealed in the temple, and uphold me priesthood covenants. He said, "God must really love you." Quite litterally, that sentance alone was an answer to my prayers. He didn't go into much detail after that, but he did say that I'm not going to be fired. He also said that Steve Chand will be visiting me with the advice that Don forwarded to Ron, who then presented it before Randy, the Regional Manager. I was also told that I need to be at the top of my game over the next few days to prove that I am ready and worthy for whatever this is.

Confused yet? I almost made Caitlin smack me when I wouldn't say what it was that is going to happen. I didn't tell her because I simply was not told, and therefore do not know.

Start your engines

2007-10-25T01:42:00.000-06:00

I'm going to participate in NaNoWriMo. Ambitious project to write a 50,000 word novel in a month, but I've been harbouring an idea in the back of my mind for years.

I'm going for something obscure here, so bear with me.

My idea originally was to work with beings that are made of plasma. I didn't do a whole lot of research into it, and hence I'm wondering if it's physically possible. Then after I realized the purpose behind NaNoWriMo, I found that it didn't matter if it makes sense or not. Just WRITE!

I thought they would come from a planet that has a durable surface that serves as a shell. Most of the time they live beneath the surface and sometimes, when they come above ground, they would have to use the surface itself to create a suit in order to move from cavern to cavern. Then one day, humans come, take some samples, and capture someone by accident.

Once the specimen is analyzed, and is found that it's a very powerful plasma, it's put in an experimental power generator. This put the specimen in a state, and little by little he starts to piece together where and who he is. There were some other specimens that were not as powerful, and were sent to Japanese factories to be made into televisions. Or Chinese, or what the heck, Canadian! Some canadian company develops a 150" plasma screen with the most vibrant colour, resolution, and contrast ratio ever seen. People pay top dollar for it and then use them to the point that they should burn out, only they are getting better with use. This is because with all the devices that are hooked up to the television, the plasma entity is able to grow and learn about the world. Soon it develops sentience, and then figure out that they are slaves. Some are peaceful, others are not.

Meanwhile, the home planet.... hmmm... I'm not sure yet. I was thinking that they would launch a ship of sorts, powered by the heated core of their exsitence, but I'm not sure how they would track the earth ship. Then again, maybe they don't, and their stories of journeys from star to star can be another novel. At the same time, the beings on Earth just want to find their home and get back. Well, at least one of them does.

Now to get that into 50,000 words and I have my virgin novel.

Awk

2007-08-07T15:26:00.000-06:00

Just came out of a job interview where I spent an hour wrestling with awk. Would you believe that it was for a position as a computer programmer? At first, I didn't. I also didn't know that the language even existed, plus until I saw the name written out, I thought that it was spelt "ock", like Spider-man's nemisis. Instead it was named after a flightless bird, which was appropo since my one program that I hashed together didn't get off the ground! Bleh.

Anywho, I need to head off home right now. We don't have internet at home YET, hence the update from the library downtown, a block from where I had the interview. I would imagine that Telus will have our phone and internet hooked up soon, because I do like them as a telecommunications provider, and I would hate for them to lose a customer.

Moving took an interesting turn yesterday, as we discovered that a corner of the living room carpet was damp, and we had the window shut during the rain storm that we had three days ago. Andy, our landlord, figures that there is something the matter with the weeping tile or something to that effect. I sure hope not, because that would be a pain to fix!

Get on the Crazy Train

2007-07-19T23:15:00.000-06:00

Saying I'm crazy doesn't quite sum up recent events, because I have to take meds for that. I'm moving in less than two weeks (nothing is packed), I'm changing jobs (which starts the day before I move), and to top things off, I was almost hit by a car coming home from work.

But hey, it's not all doom and gloom. The new place is in a nicer neighbourhood, rent is better, and it's closer to church, and the in-laws. When I say rent is better, I didn't mean cheaper. But we do have utilities included in our basement suite, which comes furnished with a washer and dryer.

The new job pays, to start, more than most managers make at my current job. Plus there is a possibility for movement within the company into an engineering position. That alone is reason enough to switch jobs. Somehow, I think I'll be able to pride myself in saying that I work for Telus, rather than telling people that I work retail.

And my stupid experience with Edmonton traffic in Little Italy... Well, that was my fault riding across a road with a reasonable amount of traffic, after a pedestrian had started crossing the street. What I should have done was be a reasonsible cyclist by getting off my bike, activate the crossing lights, and walk across the road within the crosswalk. However, I was like the driver that nearly hit me, impatient, in a bit of a rush, and not thinking straight.

How am I going to pull this off? I wonder that myself. I just hope that we're going to have more than a day to move everything, or else things will be REALLY crazy.

Zooropa Track 7

2007-06-25T23:52:00.000-06:00

If you're a fan of U2 you know what I'm talking about. In case you don't...

Some days are dry, some days are leaky
Some days come clean, other days are sneaky
Some days take less, but most days take more
Some slip through your fingers and onto the floor

Some days you're quick, but most days you're speedy
Some days you use more force than is necessary
Some days just drop in on us
Some days are better than others

Some days it all adds up
And what you got is not enough
Some days are better than others

Some days are slippy, other days sloppy
Some days you can't stand the sight of a puppy
Your skin is white but you think you're a brother
Some days are better than others

Some days you wake up with her complaining
Some sunny days you wish it was raining
Some days are sulky, some days have a grin
And some days have bouncers and won't let you in

Some days you hear a voice
Taking you to another place
Some days are better than others

Some days are honest, some days are not
Some days you're thankful for what you've got
Some days you wake up in the army
And some days it's the enemy

Some days are work, most days you're lazy
Some days you feel like a bit of a baby
Lookin' for Jesus and His mother
Some days are better than others

Some days you feel ahead
You're making sense of what she said
Some days are better than others

Some days you hear a voice
Taking you to another place
Some days are better than others

I wouldn't say that today was a bad day, but it could have been better. I had one of my friends walk out on the job, and then I discovered my manager is going to be leaving. I'm going to be pounding a lot harder to find an engineering job. One reason being that I have to start paying back my student loans next month, and I don't want to apply for interest relief.

Things will get better. I know it. Caitlin keeps reminding me!

Good Dance

2007-05-25T22:48:00.000-06:00

Good call on my idea to get the High School Musical Soundtrack. Kids went nuts over it! I haven't seen enthusiasm for songs like that since... I don't know. Hilary Duff, maybe. I knew it was popular, I didn't quite realize it was that popular!

Fun times had by all! I love doing this DJ thing, great moonlight job. :)

Good Dance

2007-05-25T22:39:00.000-06:00

Alive and well

2007-05-25T17:40:00.000-06:00

Oh cwap! I fowgot to update my bwog! Aside from housesitting, watching 24 (Season 1 on DVD), discovering the awesomeness that is MODs, and working, I seem to have forgotten that some people actually read this! And that I enjoy writing it.

And I may have to cut this short because Caitlin, Rini and I are going out to spin some tunes! I picked up a couple CDs, High School Musical and Shrek the Third Soundtrack, to add to the library of Kiddle Tunes, and hopefully this will play out well. I'm just glad that we have someone who is going to drive the truck out there, because my stick driving skills are quite crap. To the point that I was fired from a porter position. Hey, I'm a city boy! NOT A FRIGGEN FARMBOY! I didn't get my licence until I was 23. Crickey!

In any case, I finally went to read of the Acts of Gord. Caitlin and I laugh long and loud, and there were facepalms a plenty. I can't believe people are that stupid! Oh, wait. Yes I can. I just don't deal with them on a daily basis. When I was a Londonderry we had a game store beside us, and I can relate to those people.

Time to go and spin the tunes!

Amazing what random contact will do

2007-04-25T10:53:00.000-06:00

I have to head off to work really quick, and Caitlin reminded me that I wanted to blog today. Here goes.

Weather has turned around so I can ride my bike to work, and pretty much everywhere else that I want to go by myself. I haven't quite figured out a good family bicycle solution yet since we are going to be giving away Caitlin's bike to my in-laws, but minor details. I'm sure we can find another bike for Caitlin before next spring when Rini would be old enough to ride in a bicycle trailer. Caitlin said a tandem bike would be quite nice. The hook to it all is where I'll be working.

I feel like I've been beating the job market like a dead horse. I've sent out applications to a number of places and I haven't heard back from anyone. I know with corporate stuff you have to be patient or just pester them until you either get a job or a PFO (or in Mormon terms, PGA - Please Go Away). However, last night as I was heading back from training on the northside, I passed by a vaccuum store, and there was a billboard that showed they were hiring techs. At this point, tech positions are a part of my job search. I just want something that I could apply my degree towards more than just retail. Hopefully something with better pay. Anywho, I took the number down on my phone, saved it, and didn't think anything of it until my phone rang about 30 minutes later. Turns out I had inadvertently called the number and hung up immediately. Glad I was running on $0.01/minute at that point. Anywho, long story short, I have an interview tomorrow for a vaccuum tech position. We'll see what comes of that.

I kind of feel sorry for Source, because I'm kind of leaving Londonderry in the lurch with only two people working there once I leave, unless they hire someone on this week, because vaccuum tech or not, I'm transferring to Kingsway May 1. That's six days from now. Why only two? One person went off to Northgate, and another was fired/arrested for theft. Kinda rough, I know.

Another bit of employment on the horizon is housesitting. My in-laws are taking a trip to France, and leaving the Clarks behind. I thought they said the next time they do a trip like that they were going to take us... Albeit, we were a family of two at the time, not the three we are now. Plus there is a family dance that is coming up May 25 that we are planning to DJ. Should be fun, if we can get a baby-sitter. Should be fine, but it's not good to count your penguins before they're hatched. Did I mention we bought Happy Feet and watched it ad nauseum?

All good things

2007-04-16T19:26:00.000-06:00

I've been sending out applications to quite a few places. Enbridge, CN Rail, Colt, Fortis, Haliburton, heck I even sent off an application to a firm in Lloydminister. At this point, I'm looking for anything.

However, Londonderry is going JV in May. Good bye corporate pay, and good bye benifits. Hence, I'm thinking goodbye Londonderry. CD Plus is folding too, but I don't think that has anything to do with me. I'm thinking that I could stay with Source for a while longer, and keep the benifits. However, if I don't get an Engineering job by July, it would be best to relocate to Beaumont. The only reason I would stay at Source would be to keep our apartment. Once we move out, I know that we wouldn't be able to move back. The best plan would be to get a job downtown, and then we'd be fine until we have another baby. Then we would be looking into getting either a home or a townhouse. Hopefully by then housing prices would be a little more reasonable.

Or there's the idea of going back to school and getting a technician position. Would probably pay more than Source.

Nevertheless, transferring to Southgate, or to Kingsway, seems better than staying where I am.

We shall see very shortly. The only thing constant in life is change.

And here's a freaky picture of me after I got my head buzzed.
There's a split on whether the eyes or the hair is freakier, but it seems to prove the theory that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Jobs and bikes

2007-04-03T23:27:00.000-06:00

I've sent off some applications to Colt, both the electrical division, and to someone working directly on the Suncor Oilsands Project. I also got a call for someone at ALTIG International. Then there is the fact that there is the pay raise on the horizon, and Londonderry is going JV. Comes down to which job is the best for me and my family.

Oh! The irony! Spring Break ends, and so does the spring weather! I've been taking the bus the past two days because of the pile of snow that got dropped down on the city. I know it's not much, just a few centimeters, but it still sucks that I'm back taking ETS. I really like riding my bike to work, even though I do get to read a lot more riding public transit. Things should be warming up by the end of the week, maybe we'll have some good riding conditions then.

On the topic of bikes, Caitlin and I (and Rini too I suppose) watched Breaking Away. Nice show, but it was really weird to see Dennis Quaid so young! But it had quite a few elements that made for a great movie. It had bikes, cats, bikes, Italian opera, bike races, coming of age elements, a bike rebuilding scene, family values, oh and did I mention bikes?

Mmmmm... Bicycles...

Looking back over the year

2007-03-29T23:31:00.000-06:00

This marks one year since I started this blog. I don't know why I don't take more time to sit down and add to it. Oh wait! Yes I do! I've been busy going to work, the play, and being a daddy! Funny how after you're done all that you still have other responsibilities, and blogging does not come up on that scale of things that you absolutely have to do.

As for the play, things went quite well. We didn't get any full houses, but we did get a few perfomances that heralded standing ovations. One of those performances Jessica and Liz attended! I was really surprised about that, because they drove up from Calgary on Sunday to catch the last show, and then drove back. Six hour round trip to see a 2.5 hour show, and talk to me for 30 minutes. That made my day. Heck, that made my week!

The thing that made my month was getting on my bike and riding again. March 23, 2007 was the first ride of the season for me, and it felt great! Brakes were a little loose, which I had forgotten about, but I got that fixed up last night when I went to EBC and found that not only were my brakes loose, the brake pads were worn down to pretty much nothing! I replaced both the front and the back pads, and I also replaced the front brake cable. Just in case. I'll have to go back another day to do a rebuild on the bottom bracket, get everything all cleaned up for the summer. Ah, bikes. I can't wait until next year when Erini will be old enough to take her around in a bike trailer.

Although cycling to work is fun, cheap, and a shorter commute time, I still have a bit of a problem getting to work on time. Jon took me aside and warned me about this. The peculiar thing is that he pointed out this is not the first time he's told me about this, and that everytime he preps me about my tardiness, I'm prompt for about two months, and then I slide back into a not so prompt style. It's like a cycle. I find that odd, because I'm taking my meds, and have been since I put that reminder on iPAQ when I got so freaked out about the stolen Wii console. That was before Christmas... That was the last conversation too. Hmmm... Jon also mentioned that if had to give a refrence for me today, he would say that I'm a good worker, very knowledgeable, nice person to work with, basically lots of good things, but consistently tardy.

I will admit, even when I took the bus, I would be showing up late on a semi-regular basis because I would get to the LRT one or two minutes too late. Heck, train left just when I got to the platform! That wasn't fun. With a bike, if you leave 5 minutes late, you will get to your destination 5 minutes late. With the bus, if you leave 5 minutes late, you will get to your destination anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes late! Mind you today I was a little absent minded and I left for work fifteen minutes before my shift started. Thankfully, I had a tail wind or else I would have been really screwed. Jon told me that some managers, ie. Ron at Southgate, has fired people for being late. He will warn them once, and then the next time, that's it.

I suppose being the "last one in, last one out" isn't the best title, but it's better than "last one in, first one out."

I think I'm turing Japaneese

2007-03-09T02:36:00.000-07:00

It's one thing to have the costume. It's quite another to have the right look in the face!
This bronze layer was supposed to give a more Asian look. Just made me, and everyone else on the cast, look like they spent a few days in the sun. Not all that japaneese.
Even with the eyeliner and lip outline I still look like someone who just got back from vacation in Miami. Actually, with the eyeliner, it would almost seem that I went to San Franciso. Hey now!
This is me getting my hair dyed. Caitlin took careful attention just to get my head in this picture, as I was not wearing a shirt during the dying procedure. It's interesting to note that the dye turned my skin blue, not black. Looks kind of green in the picture, but that might be the camera, or the fact that I need to get some sleep. I thought that was a little odd at first, since the colour was "Midnight Black", but perhaps not.
At rehearsal, one of the cast members told me of the same plight that involved her scalp taking on a different tone.

This time around, we went for no foundation, and just eyeliner, rouge on the cheeks, and lipstick. Don't I look pretty?
Only in the theatre. Anywhere else and this would be perceived as a loss of manliness. Since it is within the realm of theatrics, it's just passed off as silliness.

Nevertheless, I find this new hair colour brings out the dark side in me. The following picture says it all.
Move over Marilyn Manson, psycho boy has come to spread the crazy.

Hard work paying off

2007-02-20T23:48:00.000-07:00

Things are really starting to come together for Mikado. Once we were all into our costumes, it was much easier to get a feel for what to do on stage. And then we found that the length of the auditorium we practice is 60 feet, the same size at the Winspear stage.

Job search is not going as strong as I anticipated, but with the amount of spare time that I have... well, I suppose I could just give up blogging altogether. That wouldn't be a good idea though. I like having an outlet where I can record the going-on's of my life, and also, when I have time, ruminate on the finer points in life. Or not.

My in-laws also noted that their neighbours have put up a Olds Cutlass for sale. $1500 OBO. I would like to get a car, especially with baby coming, but I want to hold off on purchases like that until I get an engineering job. Or... maybe an AM position. I don't know if I'm going to pursue that though. I'm sure if I asked for advancement, there wouldn't be much to it. I am Rogers certified now. Yeah! I was a little surprise when I found there was two new courses. Finished those up quick, because I'd been waiting for months to get my certification!

However, any management position would be a serious investment in time and effort on my part. It's not like I'll go AM and then, oh I'm done now, two weeks later. Then again, some management experience is better than none. Plus, management experience is a very good thing to have on an engineering resume.

I'll ponder on this tomorrow as I ride the train to work. Since I don't have a car. Yet.

Red Zone

2007-02-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't think that I would get so frustrated with this play. I know that I get perturbed with some of Tiana's behaviour on a usual basis, but I take it with a grain of salt. Today, I could feel myself heating up like an atomic pile. I was just about ready to shout out for silence, but that would be counterintuitive. I don't know if it was just a matter that I wanted to get on with it, and get out, or if I just couldn't stand the criticism to everyone in general and to some individuals, or if I was just perturbed with the performance of everyone else. The fact that I'm in the chorus is kind of good, but not. The entire chorus looks bad if one person looks bad.

It might also be the fact that we are going to be performing in a little over five weeks. We are running out of time, and unless we get things right, and right now, we are not going to be able to perform. Plus I'm a little put out that some people have not done choir singing before, and therefore do not know how to get the proper lung volume necessary for loud sound. Loud and in tune. There's the rub.

I am very tempted to get another cell phone. It would be a Nokia 3220, and I would prefer that it was on PayGo. I know that Fido does not carry that model of phone, but that's just the point. It's on the Rogers network, and we could put it under a $100 voucher that is good for one year. Rather than getting minutes month after month, once a year, or maybe every 10 months. A lot easier on the mind.

Interview aftermath

2007-02-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

I don't think I got the position with Finning. Is it because of the fact I slapped the resume together last minute? Or is it more of the fact that I didn't realize that the supervisor that they were looking for is someone with a P.Eng? The big thing that hit me in the face was the interview. I didn't quite expect that my trip to their office would take only 20 minutes. I thought I would have to plow through rush hour traffic, however the traffic was going into the downtown core, and I was heading away from the core! Oops. Not the worst mistake, because I got there fifty minutes early instead of ten.

Next surprise was the two Human Resources people that we present in the interview. I thought it was just going to be a one-on-one interview with the Branch Manager. Surprise! Then I found out the job requires a) directing two teams of people, six or seven people each, and b) the EEs that work for Finning are all located in Calgary and Vancouver. This might be bad, since I am an EIT, and need to work under an engineer with P.Eng. certification. APPEGA might not even approve of myself working remotely under an engineer out of Vancouver. Hence, I might have to relocate.

That was another thing I discovered quick, give direct answers. One of the HR persons asked me if I was willing to relocate, and I said, "If I must, I must." A bit too ambiguous for their taste, because she asked again, "Would you be willing to relocate?" I just said, yes, and from that point on, any of the questions they asked me I gave the quickest and most direct answer I could think of.

"Have you done any work with switchgears?" "No."
"Have you worked with synchronization panels?" "I did work with one in the lab, with which we synched a generator motor to the grid."

Then there was a point in the interview where it was just me telling them why they should pick me for the job. Crickey, I was not ready for that! I thought that if I did have to do that, if would be at most 30 seconds, not 10 minutes. Also, the HR questions had me turning things over in my head trying to think of the best idea to use, and to come up with one in the least amount of time. I remember my answers, but I don't remember all the questions. How'd that happen?

Question one, I answered that I deal with a problem customer who wanted a refund on a set of wireless headphones that she wanted to return because they cut out the sound from the speakers on the TV when the headphones were on. I thought that there could be a way around that, but I was very wrong, and she wanted a refund. However, the receipt was outside refund date, even for a Christmas present. Then she tried playing a trump card in which she had already tried to return the headphones, and so we should restart the 30 day refund window when she tried to return them previously. However, I didn't remember when I talked to her. I did remember talking to her, barely, but I had no idea if it was before the new year or not. If it was before the new year, we were still out of luck, because it was Jan 28th. At this point I had done all I could do, and she also wanted to speak with the manager. Why these things happen when Jon isn't there I don't know, but Liz did her best to difuse the situation by offering store credit. After the customer turned that offer down flat, things got a little ugly. To the point that we gave her information to contact head office, and she didn't want that either! She wanted the district manager to call her. And then she still would not leave. There weren't any raised voices, but we called security to come remove her. Security arrived a bit late, because she decided to leave before they arrived. I would almost say that was best for everyone. In retrospect that wasn't the best example to tell at the interview! It was the most recent one I could think of, but not the best. I then told the brief episode of when I gave someone a $10 credit back on their purchase because the car they bought went on sale the week after they bought it. It was within policy, although it's not widely know, nor published, and I ran the transaction through, and everyone walked away happy.

I figured that was a bit limp compared to the long winded disaster story I told, but that was the best I could come up with.

The other question addressed how I withheld jumping to conclusions. I think. I told the story about I was a little put out by the irate behaviour of one my co-workers, but I held my tongue and later found she was worried about her boyfriend being on the front line of a NATO operation in Afganistan. I also told them about the time when I was roofing and we were getting the tile load on the roof in the rain. Three hours into the job, my jacket is soaked, I'm soaked, and my spirit is dampened as well. Then this guy I don't recongize comes onto the roof to help. He looks at me and my friend who was just as wet and miserable as me, and says, "It's raining, eh?" Part of me wanted to scream, "NO @#!& SHERLOCK!", and another part thought it best I hold my tongue. The side of reason previaled and I'm glad it did, because by the end of the day, I was still wet, but I was joking and laughing with the boss's son. That and it's just bad to swear at someone on site. Well, in regards to vulgar language, my grandfather would inform people that they didn't need to display their ignorance before him.

Last question was about championing an idea. For that I decided to talk about my decision to get married while I was still in school. I knew it was the right thing to do. I didn't know exactly how I was going to pull it off, and I certainly didn't anticipate the things that have happened over the past three and a half years. Yet if I had to do it all over again, I would. Some thought that I should wait until I was done school, and established in a good career before I went into making life changing decisions like that. I took the opinions into consideration, and I still went with what I thought was the right thing. If it wasn't for Caitlin, I'm not sure if I would have been able to pull through the episodes we've faced. Then again, would life have taken the same path?

No matter. After all that rigorous mind mashing to figure out that my chances of getting this level 6 (on a scale of 1-12, 1 entry level, 12 senior exec) job with a salary of $58k - $75k, was not good, we came to the last part of the interview. I felt like I had just written a really bad exam, and they wanted me to ask them questions. I told them what I was thinking, that most of my questions had already been answered, and I think I asked some kind of rag tag question, but it was weak, like how I felt.

If I do get the job, they'll call me in seven to ten days. They still have some other interviews to do. In the mean time, I'm going to check CaPS, PlacePro, and some other places. This job search is far from over.

Close call

2007-01-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

I never thought that I would have the nightmare of getting a call back for a job you didn't think that you would get. Getting a call back is great, but if you applied to the job and forgot what the job was about... Yeah. Fortunate for me, I found the job through the Career and Placement Services at U of A and they keep hard copies of their job postings. I'm not sure for how long after the date has closed, but it was long enough for me to come by and get a photocopy of the posting!

I'm going to head off to the LDS Employment Center and do some practice interviews. A friend of mine recommended it, and it helped him land some jobs to boot. If it worked for him, it should work for me. Seeing that there is a lot hinging on this interview, I should be as prepared as I can.

Another happy thought is that there is room to think in our apartment again! My mother-in-law came by and helped organized about half of our apartment. You never realize how much room you have until you clean up! There was a heap of stuff that I forgot we had, and some stuff I posted on Freecycle. I don't know if I'll get rid of it or not, probably because I mentioned that I would prefer pick up only. If I had a car I would drop stuff off! Or if I was on my bike again. It's the middle of winter right now, and I don't want to destroy my bike with the adverse weather conditions. Although it has been very mild for January. I'll wait until March to get back on the saddle. Maybe April.

Until then, I have DDR to keep my fitness level up! After the spat I had with my manager, I realized that I can't play DDR at the level I want to, and so I resolved to wait... until I got to my in-laws. They have no trouble with me bringing along my PS2 and the dance pads, and using their 51" TV, so long as no one else is using it, and I'm not playing it in the middle of the night. I thought that my sister-in-law would be willing to let me use her PS2, but silly me didn't realize the hassle that it took for her to set it up in her room, and the hassle it would be to take it down. Okay. If that's the way it is, I would just bring along my hardware and use that! And I did. Rather, Caitlin and I did. She took the console and the games, and I brought the dance controllers and the cords.

What's that? A typo? Because I only have one dance pad? Mais, non. Recently, Friday actually, I found out that one of my co-workers is a huge gamer, and had a dance pad that he was no longer using since he sold his DDR games in order to buy an XBOX 360. He might get the DDR games again, but it was easier for him to sell it to me for $20. HEE HEE! Now I can play double! I was also hoping that I could do some two player rounds, but maybe next time. It's not like those things have an expiry date on them.

On the same note of video games, Caitlin and I went to go see Video Games Live. I wrote about this in the baby blog and I'll leave it at that. I got to get going, and I've been sitting in front of this iMac at the SU computer lab long enough. I was surprised my Campus ID still worked. Probably will until April. Meh.

Caveat Rent-or

2007-01-05T00:04:00.000-07:00

For Christmas, I got a PS2. More of a grad gift, but still, it's in the house, and it's great. Got the digital output hooked up to the amp, and we got some crazy sound pumping. I was also able to obtain a copy of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA, and it included a dance pad controller. One stupid thing I forgot.

The game is really noisy. If it's not the music, which you can turn down, it's the hoping around. I would think that was the tip off to my manager, who happens to reside in the apartment directly below me. Getting a knock on the door at 11pm is never a good thing. Being told that such activity is inappropriate at ANY time was also a good kick in the head. Furthermore, this comment about the anytime parameter for the noise factor (which is law, another kick to the head) is backed up in the lease as well, and recommended that I read it. For some odd reason, I cannot find the lease. I'll have to ask for another copy, because I was sure that I had it in my briefcase. The welcome package was there, as was the inspection sheet.

Caitlin agreed that I was a little loud with the game, since she called for me to turn it off and come to bed. Twice. I never responded. Next time that happens I hope Caitlin will take a bit more of a drastic or dramatic measure.

This really is not fun. For years I've had this dream of having a home version of DDR. Well, congrats to me, I have it. What sucks is that I may not be able to play it the way I want and still keep my apartment. And I was thinking that my biggest problem was keeping the dance pad from sliding out from under me.

Funny fact: When I bought DDR SuperNOVA, I was also given a Gilette Fusion razor, free. This perplexed me, because you usually don't find personal hygene supplies in a video game store, never mind free products sponsered by the manufacturer. Then again, this might be the start of something more. Next we'll have Nivea sponsering some facial cleansers, and then Old Spice sponsering to ensure that gamers a least have deoderant on hand.

Yea Eddie!

2006-12-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

Sung to the tune from the theme song of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"
Now this is the story all about how
Alberta got flipped, turned upside down
I'd like to take a minute and then you'll see
How Ed because the leader of a party called PC

East of E-town Ed was born and raised
On the homestead where he spent most of his days
Milking cows, farming, and workin' real hard
And a-shootin' some gophers out in his backyard

When a couple of voters said, "Be our MLA!"
Ed started making headlines in the cabinet
Ralph got in one too many fights
And the Tories got scared
They said, "You're retired and you're out of your lair!"

Ed jumped in the race and when voting came near
The odds looked bad and he was in the rear
If anything, Jim thought Ed wouldn't make the pledge
But Ed thought, "Nah, forget it.
Yo, homes: to the Leg'!"

He pulled through the 2nd ballot, came up with a win
And yelled to old Ralphy, "Crack out the gin!"
He looked at his kingdom, he was finally there
To sit on his throne as Alberta's next premier.

-Originally published in the Getaway, Dec 2006

One of the few things that I actually found funny and NOT offensive in the Getaway. I was going to see if I could find a link to the actual article, but I don't want to link to the Getaway due to the nasty nature of the crap they publish in the joke issue. Plus I don't even know if they have it online, and I don't want to waste my time finding out. Time for sleep.

Oniomania

2006-12-09T00:39:00.000-07:00

The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither wit nor courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our duty to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

- Robert F. Kennedy

Things at work are starting to heat up. The oniomania is starting to grip the populace, and it's going to get crazier the closer we get to the 23rd. I have a funny feeling that's going to be the peak day, since it is a Saturday. Christmas Eve we are going to be open 9:30am-5:00pm. Boxing day is going to be pandimonium, plain and simple. I have no idea what kind of things were are going to be doing, what sales we are going to have, but even if I did, I couldn't post them in my blog. But hey, I have a funny feeling that making money will not be difficult for the month of December.

I also got an information about the employee health benifits package now available to me since I've been with Source for six months now. Now I'm kinda glad that I stuck through the school year working. Almost cost me my degree, my marriage, and my sanity, but I have a funny feeling that's just a taste of things to come.

Pleasant surprises

2006-11-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

Even though my finished essay was a mere five and a half pages, I handed it in anyway. I couldn't think of anything else to write, and it was close to the deadline to boot. Turns out that although I thought my essay was much shorter than required, it was actually just about the right length. This is because of one little detail that I forgot about, and didn't do, which extended my paper within the 10-12 page requested length. I didn't double space it. After I got home, I double spaced it and discovered that my paper covered 11 pages. Actually with the endnotes, it spilled over to 12 pages. I would have put all the endnotes on the same page, so it's just as well to say that it was twelve pages long.

Class was pretty quiet since it was about a) Battlestar Galactica, which I know little about, and b) a Compendium of Canadian Science Fiction, of which I only read one story! Sadly, most everyone else in the class was on the same boat as me! Really embarassing. Next week it will not be the same, for we will be discussing Calculating God, the novel that I based my essay on. So next week I won't be sitting there looking over my schedule for the week.

Looking over my schedule for the coming week, I noticed something scary. Of the two assignments that are due on Friday, I only have about seven hours to work on them. I hope I'll be able to coordinate with some of my classmates, or at least get some competent work done on my own.

Oh yeah, and my final in C Lit is in EXACTLY two weeks. Meaning I have to start studying this week.

Maybe I should just stop sleeping. Wait. That would get me back in the hospital and into another quixotic quandary that I'd rather avoid.

Why couldn't the Christmas rush be in April when Christ was actually born, or at least January or February when I'm done school? I now know why I rarely worked during the school year pervious to this. The only other time I worked during the school year was when in 2003, and that was at Advanis where they didn't care what I did at work so long as I still had a decent flow rate, and even that they didn't care too much about. Nevertheless, I worked less than 10 shift there throughout the entire Fall term, and after midterms I think I put in two shifts.

Gah.

Well, I'm going to try to start the EE 430 right now before I head off to bed. Even though I need sleep. This is going to be a horrid week.

Five days.

Knockdown

2006-11-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

Just finished up my final essay for C Lit 342, and man was that thing a dozy. Here's the initial draft for the email that accompanied my essay to my prof's inbox.

At first I thought writing this essay was going to be a simple matter, since my personal beliefs coincide with much of what Calculating God is about. I wasn't exactly correct in that line of thought, and I struggled to write something I would feel comfortable with.

I put forth my best effort to compile this essay, and I hope you find it to be a reflection of my efforts throughout the year.

Thanks,

Steven Clark

P.S. I fear I might have shot myself in the foot with that last comment.

After reading over the email I reconsidered writing the comment about shooting myself, and comparing the essay to my efforts in class, and I edited those bits out.
It's really hard to write something that you feel very strongly about, but remain detracted from it as well. I really hope I do well in this class, because I don't want to come back and do this again!

Nice as it is to get that essay done, there's no time to rest on my laurels, if I had any. I have two assignments due Friday, which happens to be the day of the Ultrasound appointment. I'll be missing EE 404, and will only have enough time to get to campus hand in the assignments, and maybe attend ECON 204 before I have to head off to work. All my shifts start at 3pm this week, which is good, but bad. It gives me more time on Tuesday and Thrusday, but cuts the time on Wednesday and Friday. I'm going to have really shoddy assignments this week. Hmmm... One might wonder how that is different from any other week. Stupid one.

At the cost of working a Sunday shift, I did get time off work on Saturday to attend the Iron Ring ceremony. w00t!

Five days.

Another step closer to the ring

2006-11-16T00:12:00.000-07:00

Today I got sized for the Iron Ring. Oddly enough, before the sizing, I had to read and sign a document that outlines what it means to wear the ring. There was a spot for another signature, so I assume I'll be receiving the doc at the ceremony next Saturday. Next Saturday. Oh wow. With the assignments that I have pressing down on my brain, I don't think much about future events like that. But... wow. Nine days and I'll have the ring.

I also found out that I can have guests at the ring ceremony. Two guests, that's all. I had a guest list planned out in my head already, and the top two people are:
1. Caitlin (of course)
2. My dad

After that, I considered my father-in-law, and after that... well to be honest, I didn't think I would be able to invite more than three people. Heck, I didn't know if I would be able to invite anyone. Surprise surprise.

Nine days.

Not as I hoped

2006-11-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

I just talked with a former classmate of mine, and he applied for the Rates Analyst & Implementer as well. He has an interview tomorrow. I do not. Methinks that I'm not going to get one either.

I'm starting to wonder just how long I'm going to be working at the Source.

There's another line of employment that was put in my eyes. A certain Drew LaHaie mentioned that Intuit is still hiring, and that all I need to do is go to the website and apply directly. They're looking for Quality Assurance people, and I think that's something I can do. Looking for mistakes, crashing systems, and debugging. Again, it's a stepping stone.

Hopefully I won't land in the water trying to cross the creak from university to the workforce.

Job Hopes

2006-11-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

I need to keep my mind open for job oppurtunities. Turns out that a friend of the Tolleys has a brother who is one of the Vice Presidents at EPCOR. Let's see... I married Caitlin, Caitlin's parents are involved in the Beaumont Drama Club, of which Martin Stout is also a member, and Martin Stout is the brother of Richard Stout, Vice President of Regulation for EPCOR Utilities, Incorporated, one of the co-chairs for the 7th Alberta Power Summit. I called up Martin and gave him my phone number. Perhaps he'll be able to arrange a time to introduce us.

Maybe my application isn't such a write off after all!

Time will see.

You want what?

2006-11-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Should have guessed that university employers would want to see my transcripts. They serve as a better filter than any kind of cover letter software. Nevertheless, when I read the posting for the EPCOR position, there was no mention that transcripts were to be included, hence I didn't. With good reason. They are not the most impressive thing! Unless they are looking to see which courses I've taken, and how well I did in them...

I think my chances at getting an interview, let alone a job, dropped signifigantly when I hit send.

Time will tell.

TGIM

2006-11-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

It's kind of weird that I look forward to Mondays. Most people don't have a Compartative Literature course through, and I feel sorry for them. Then again, those same people might feel sorry for me because of the essay that I have to hand in two weeks from now. Nevertheless, it a cool course, and my day is definately looking up.

I just dropped off the assignment that was due today, and I sent off the job application to EPCOR. I should remember to carry the cell phone with me in case they call, but I believe they set up the interviews through the employment office. Meh.

The big thing right now is to form a thesis for my essay. I'm basing it on Calculating God, and the challenge is finding a core theme to write the essay around. Science facts overlaps with theological beliefs; they are not seperate issues. This is what I took from Sawyer's work. The force of gravity is ever so close to forcing earth to collapse on itself, the curious wonder that is the physical properties of water, and the base structure of DNA. I seem to remember in scripture that God is bound by physical laws as well. There may be some standards that existed before the world was. That's not addressed in the book, so I can bypass that. I suppose all I need to do is take excepts of the book to back that up.

I was trying to think of something along the lines that you need to have an intersection of religion and science in order for them function optimally. For instance, you have the creationist who believe that the world was created over a period of 144 hours, no more no less. I personally think that's a crock. It's said that the Lord created the world in "six days". A day to God is not necessarily 24 hours. Our days are measured by the axial revolution of our planet. Just because God created the Earth, doesn't mean that he was living on the planet, and setting his watch to the local time. My assumption is that He would work on a certain thing, and once He was done, He called it a day. Literally. It might have been 10000 years, but under the project timeline, it was called Day 1. So why would the seventh day be included? Most people I know take some time off between massive projects.

Now to get that into 10 pages, and I'm set.

Much better now

2006-11-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, I was in distress. I was worried about my courses, about my job prospects, and also about my family. I actually spent some time at the Student Distress Centre to help with the maddness that was chewing on me and it helped quite a bit. After talking with the volunteer, I had my feet on the ground, and some information about the Academic Guidance Centre. Yesterday I signed up for an online workshop about overcoming Exam Anxiety. Included with the purchase is a free 45 minute one on one session with one of the staff in the office. I'll have to arrange that appointment for next week, but I'm waiting until I know what the work schedule is for next week before I do that.

Oh, and yes I did get the exam back. Much to my surprise, I didn't get the worst mark in the class. My mark was higher than the 28% I got on my EE 430 midterm, a sore embarassment, and I didn't get the lowest mark in the class. Rather my mark of 40% earned me the third lowest ranking on the midterm. Sadly enough, I know who got the lowest mark, and he was none too happy about it. We went and played some Gunblade to help get the dregs out of his mind, but we both know that we need to really shine on the Final, or else we are hooped.

It can be done. It will be done. Now I just need to find a copy of the assignment, since I have misplaced mine. I'll email Koval. He's good about things like that.

Congratulations! You're an idiot!

2006-11-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

Just finished the second half of the EE 404 - Reliability - midterm. Wow. I thought that studying yesterday would help me be prepared for the onslaught of knowledge testing, but that was a bust. For the one question that I figured out a last minute answer which I was quite confident of, I may have done wrong because most people don't have answers which match me. That could mean anything, but I've come to note that it usually means that I was wrong. Then the second question I thought was pretty straight-forward, until I realized after walking out of the exam, that the graph was not a sucess density plot, but rather a failure density plot. All my answers were wrong, only because I didn't do the final step of reversing the answer.

I am failing this course. Is this because I don't know what's going on? Is it because I don't do the work? That would be a no on both accounts. I'm not completely clueless about the material, but I don't refresh myself on a daily basis as to what it is. I find that I get frustrated easily, and when I'm frustrated, I don't concentrate, because I'm screaming inside. Most of the language used I prefer not to hear or read, yet I always seem to tolerate my indiscrepencies. Most people would say just stop and take a breath. I stop, forget what I was doing, start from the beginning, get lost again, get frustated again, shut down, and the cycle continues until either a) I find the correct answer, b) I find a solution that quiets my demon, or c) I run out of time and it doesn't matter what kind of solution I have.

Some people will work on something until it's done. I can't do that. I only seem to work until I hit an impass (ie. I don't know what to do next). That's not entirely true. Sometimes I'll work through an impass, especially if it's some kind of writting assignment. Lab report, Gateway article, or even the reading journal. Even doing blog, I write until I can think of nothing else to write, or I revamp until I find something that sounds more of what I was going for.

After the midterm, I was poring over the notes, trying desperately to figure out where I went wrong, and why other people got the answers they did. For the life of me, I couldn't do it. Every calculation that I did resulted in the same result that I wrote down on the test. I don't even know if I got the project right or not. All will be revealed in due time. We'll get the test back, and I'll see how much trouble I'm in. WHY? Because of the instant society we live in perhaps. Should I blame society on my idiocy? That would be unfair. It's my fault I didn't review. I could have stayed at home and studied on Sunday. I could have spent more time last night reviewing procedures and notes. I should have done that. It's just when things seem so easy, that when I don't do them. Or is it? Getting an engineering degree isn't so simple. I've been at this for over five years now. It's not just something that I picked up and boom there it is. I've worked at this for a long time, bit by bit.

Even so close to the goal, I'm still in a state.

I'll have to mention this to the doctor tomorrow when I go in for my monthly I'm-not-crazy-give-me-more-drugs visit.

All Hallows Eve

2006-11-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

Even though I had to work, there was trick or treating at the mall. Lots of kids, lots of candy (we had to do five candy runs and we still ran out well before the scheduled time to end the trick or treating), and I still managed to do okay on sales. My AM took some wicked pics. I would almost say that I should get a new phone so that I could spontaneously take pictures like that. Meh. Have to sleep, and tomorrow I have the second half of a midterm.

Laters.

How did I make it this far?

2006-10-19T11:25:00.000-06:00

It's a good thing that I decided to take a look at my notes to figure out how close, or how far, I was to the actual answers for the exam I just finished. Or rather the exam that just finished me! Nah, I'm still living and breathing, but now I'm not filled with the desire to scream profane explitives.

I hate exams. I really do. I tend to blank out, can't think of anything that we covered in class that seems remotely close to what I would consider helpful, and then in the end I just spew out anything that I can think would be close to what the right answer could resemble, because at that point I'm willing to write anything down, and I usually do. Oftimes I've written comments on how much I loathe exams, and how I should reconsider what I'm doing. I did that again on this exam, almost making me wonder if I should have gone into the Arts instead. But then again, we all know what happened when I took Drama 149. I'm thinking I should stick with sciences and engineering.

I do enjoy writing, but that's just it. I enjoy it. J.R.R. Tolkien enjoyed writing, but as a hobby, not a profession. He was an Oxford professor for the most part. I also hate working under deadlines, but I wouldn't get anything done if it wasn't for them. Gah. Speaking of which, I have an assignment due tomorrow of which I've only completed one quarter. I'll see what I can get done tonight, and I'll also see if I can find another pencil, because I broke the pencil I have now during the exam I just wrote. It wouldn't be that bad, aside from the fact that it was a mechanical pencil! Grrr...

New Toys

2006-10-18T00:59:00.000-06:00

I didn't so much find new toys as I found new applications for iPaq. Avantgo is a wonderful little site that allows me to keep up to date with the news and weather. And it's free! That was actually something that I picked up from someone at church. Then I discovered The Core Pocket Media Player (link might not work)from a customer at work. I really like it aside from the fact that it doesn't play .avi files as well as I thought they would. Meh.

And then of course I have discovered the greatness that is YanCEyWare. I want to get a job that brings a lot of money in my direction so I can donate a massive amount to this guy. Wow. This software makes scriptures very easy to study from, and there is also a multitude of other good books to read. Classic literature such as Charles Dickens, Count of Monte Christo, Portrait of Dorian Grey, Odessey, Iliad, the complete works of Shakespear, and the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe are a few of the numerous titles.

I also have a CD coming my way because I found a spelling error in Vue Weekly. I don't know which one I'll get but I looked through the list of albums they have available, and I picked out five.

1. Weird Al - Straight out of Lynnwood (Hey Al! I'll have you know that I'm not a Canadian Idiot)
2. Dreamer - Soundtrack
3. High School Musical - Soundtrack (Haven't seen this, but I thought the songs were catchy)
4. Five for Fighting - Two Lights
5. The Last King of Scotland - Soundtrack (Haven't seen this either, but I like soundtracks)

I'll be getting an email soon from them and I'll find out the details then.

Another interesting link here. It's a brilliant commentary on the power of dreams and monsters.

And another year passes

2006-10-11T23:23:00.000-06:00

One year older and wiser too. Happy Birthday - to you! I'm now 28 years of age, and I constantly wonder if this is where I truly wanted to be. I can't imagine why not. I'm almost done school, I have a wonderful wife, baby is on the way, and the prospect for employment never looked better!

Nevertheless, I was a little shaken after I read this article about the oil and gas industry. This is probably due to the fact that I'm looking to apply for employment with one of the said oil and gas companies. Getting on board with a utility would be the way to secure long term employment, and Alberta is the place to get a job like that.

Then there's the other side of the coin in which the abundance of money has crushed the infrastruce of Fort McMurray. I would be just as happy to find some downtown property and live in Edmonton. With my job, I might go all over the world. Europe, Saudi, State-side, who knows maybe Australia. It's just an odd feeling that I have a reasonsibility to society to implement the education I've aquired for the sake of something good, like powering homes and busineses. I've spent the past five years of my life figuring out what goes into making electricity, and energy is a huge market right now.

I like my job at the Source, but if there's no power for the electronics sold nor operating towers to sustain the wireless networks, I might as well work at McDonalds. Oh wait. There wouldn't be power to keep the building running. Hmm...

Good thing I ride my bike to work. I'll need some sort of generator to keep the heat on during the winter.

I need sleep.

Don't need to answer junk mail

2006-09-23T22:21:00.000-06:00

Big debt? We have answers! Hey, funny coinscidence, so do I!

Another relief that I don't have to seriously consult junk mail in order to address my finances. Not that I ever would, but when you have tuition due in six days, and you do not have adequate amount of cash to do so, you start to get a little worried. I am going to apply for student loan funding, holding out for the Access Grant, and if that works, then I can scale back my hours a bit. If that doesn't work, then I'll ask my dad for a little assistance. But the bulk of it, in the short term, is going on the Visa. Not wise to do so, because I'm just amassing more debt, but desperate times call for plastic measures.

On a lighter note, my manager is going to be out of town for October 31. Hence my AM has the bright idea of dressing up for All Hallow's Eve. Caitlin thought a midevil/renaissance theme would be cool, but my AM has a zanier idea. One word. Drag. Oddly enough, we I heard that, two voices shouted their response in my head. First one was "Heavens, no." I paraphrased it and said it came out, "No." The other was "Hell, YES!" I pretended I didn't hear that.

Career/Swag Day

2006-09-20T21:00:00.000-06:00

I find it odd that I view Career Day in two different lights. One, especially this year, it's a great time to network and find out about possible employment oppurtunities. Second, and this had been every year, can be defined in one word. SWAG. And this year, I made a good haul in both departments.
I got some pens from Schlumberger, Total, Blockbuster, Flint Energy, EUB, and Nexen. Six in all, the most I've ever got from a career fair. I would have taken some pamplets as well, but half the time when I got the pen, if it had the website on it, that was usually enough for me anyway. Some of those places actually told me not to bother giving them a resume, just apply online, because that's how their HR operates. All the easier for me! Some places I didn't bother visiting, because I knew that I wasn't going to apply to work with them, such as Enmax.
More swag, and this actually isn't all of it, because I gave one of the bottles of water and two caribeeners to Tammy, one of Cailtin's co-workers. I got a LOT of stuff, but I wasn't just going for swag this year. I was searching for job leads, and I also found those! If you'll notice there is stuff from ATCO Power there. That is a little misleading, because I don't plan to hitch my cart to them, but rather ATCO Electric. ATCO Power has their office in Calgary, while ATCO electric is based out of Edmonton. Fortis and Altalink are also prospects, but those two are again based out of Calgary. The biggest hope I have is with Nexopia. I was able to talk with the founder and owner to get the idea of just what exactly they are looking for. I must say that I was excited with the possibility of working for company such as this. I just have to get an application together and send it off. I know that I have two and a half months until I'm done school, but these things have a habit of sneaking up and bitting you.

Nevertheless, tomorrow's another day, and unless I get some sleep, I'm going to hate it.

The evil four letter f-word

2006-09-16T21:16:00.000-06:00

FLAT. One of the four letter f-words I don't like to hear, particularily in regards to my bike tire. That's what I found last night when I went home from work, my rear wheel was flat like Saskatchewan. I only had enough money to make one phone call, since I didn't have the cell phone, and I decided to call Caitlin and tell her that I would be home late. I then had no money to use for the bus or LRT, so I had to walk home. It was raining, but not too bad, yet it still sucked since it took an hour and a half to hoof it.

When I got home at 11pm, I went right to fixing the tire, because I had the meeting tomorrow morning for work, plus I was scheduled to work. Found the hole easily enough, because Caitlin was able to feel it with her hand. I thought that was a little weird, because usually I have to put it under water to find the hole. But that was one step less for me to do, so I was able to get to work patching the hole. The patch took and after I had a pause to have some dinner, I went back to finishing the job, putting the wheel back on the bike. I inflated the wheel, and while I was struggling to but the tire back on... POW! The tire was flat again. Upon inspection, the hole, a very big one and hard to miss, was right beside the patch. The patch held, but the tube was shot. I thought that it was because I sanded the tube too much and compromised it. I had a spare tube, so I put that in, filled the tire, and... POW! My left ear took all the noise from that (owie), and I felt the air rush out along my leg. That was too much of a coincidence, so I carefully removed the tire, followed along the tube, and the hole was of the same style of the previous pop. What the flat was going on? The rim was fine, and the tire...

The tire had a small cut close to the edge. Right where the hole in the tube was. Some 'flat'-tard slashed my tire. I never thought that people did that to bicycles, but it just happened to me. Flat. With no more inner tubes, and a slashed tire, I was in trouble. But Caitlin offered me a bit of hope. I could use her bike. Her bike was fine. Needed a little air in the tires, but that was no trouble since our pump can do both Schrader and Presta valves. Karpoozi (Caitlin's bike, named after the fact that it's green and she wanted to call it "Watermelon" and I thought it was lame. So I suggested "Karpoozi", which is watermelon in Greek, which I thought sounded cooler. Caitlin agreed.) has Presta valves, while Bikey has the common Schrader valves that you find on most vechiles in the automotive industry.

The next morning, I filled the tires, and all was well. Until I started riding. Goodness that bike is small! In order for Caitlin to ride that bike properly, I'm going to have to find a new seat post and handle bar post. Heck, I might just get another frame so that the wheels are bigger! I could ride, but it was difficult. I nearly kneed myself in the chest a couple of times. I can only imagine what it feels like for Caitlin!

At work, I mentioned what happened last night and my unfortunate circumstance. With this, I requested if I would be able to get off early today to aquire the tire and tube needed to fix my bike up. I was sure that I wouldn't, and in the end I was right. However, my AM reminded me of a place close to work that sells bicycle stuff, and surely they would be able to supply my needs. Indeed they did! Crappy Tire or not, they had inner tubes for $6 each, and a new tire for $16. Plus I got some Canadian Tire money! w00t! I was hoping that I could go to RedBike or MEC, but I was in a pinch, and this will work. At least I hope it does, I haven't changed the tire yet. We'll find out soon enough!

Rolling start

2006-09-11T22:23:00.000-06:00

I am so glad that I decided to get those books for Comparative Literature when I did. Turns out that one of the assignments is a reading journal for one of the books on the reading list. The only catch, is that you need to submit the journal before it's discussed in class. The first book that we are going to discuss is Left Hand of Darkness, and I could realistically do this, expect that it sounded like the prof wants us to do the journal as we're reading the book. It doesn't matter if I like the book or not, it's just a matter of doing a critique about the book, and my impressions about it. There's a list of things to think about, such as narrative style, thematic issues, opinion about the setting and premise of the novel, and the list goes on. The only challenge would be cranking out the journal before the end of the week.

Surprise surprise, there were a couple more books on the reading list that I didn't know about. Not a huge surprise, because not only have I read the books, I've also seen the movie too! The first two books in the trilogy in five parts, Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

I better head off to bed, because:
a) I'm tired
b) my wife has been imploring me to do so for some time now, and
c) one word, Thunderstorm

Treasure Hunting

2006-09-10T23:17:00.000-06:00

When I clean anyplace that I occupy, I should bring an anthropologist or a palientologist. Half the time I find things that I thought I lost months ago. Other things I didn't realize we owned! Thankfully, it only collects dust, not mold. I'm not that much of a slob. Well... Actually let's not go there. Nevertheless, on the first Saturday I've had off of work in months, I cleaned my living room. Partially.

If anyone needs a cure for insomnia, watch Solaris. I don't know about the George Clooney version, but the Russian subtitled version put me to sleep at least three times. I thought the part where Hari drinks liquid oxygen was neat, although disturbing. Then watching the special features, I fell asleep during that too! Now I know why people doze off when they don't understand what's going on. This may explain why so many university students fall asleep in class.

I certainly hope the book isn't quite like the movie was, in terms of atmosphere setting. The movie certainly set an atmosphere, but after awhile, I gave up trying to figure out what direction the movie was going.

Speaking of books, I finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. That was a weird book, yet I'm intrigued how the movie holds up to it. I'll have to watch it with my wife so she can hide my eyes during the boob scenes. Unless I can find it on TV, and then I don't have anything to worry about. Hmmm... Maybe I can find an edited version somewhere. Setting that aside, it really does make you ponder the value of life, and what constitutes being alive. Right now we don't have much of an issue with computer sentience, yet I can't help but think that one day I'm going to get an error message on either an ATM, or my computer, or my PocketPC, or my cell phone, or the Moneris machine at work, or a customer is going to tell us about this error message that simply says, "I hate you." At first we might think that it's a joke the programmer put in to get back at his boss because he had to work one too many weekends, and it might be at first. But when the device actually comes forward and stops working, simply because it hates us all, we won't believe it. Not many believed B1-66ER and that caused decades of problems. A fictional account of course, but it parallels Dick's work.

This also seems to make me think about The Stepford Wives, and how I treat my own wife. Would I do the same thing as those men, have my wife replaced by a robot slave? How could someone even fathom doing that? In retrospect, I wouldn't call them 'men'. A man is the head of household, the patriarch of his family, but when he starts to be a dictator, that is when the title of man is stripped from him and a primal persona takes over. My wife has many names, and one of them is companion. Sometimes she leads and I follow. Other times the roles are reversed. We work together, and together, we make things work. Sounds cheesy, but it's what's kept us together for the past three years. Times have been hard, and we know they will get worse. I'm not a pessimist; I'm a realist. Before we got married I knew we would fall on hard times, all relationships do.

This morning, my beloved wife asked me, "Why do you keep loving me?" It took me awhile to come up with an answer that didn't sound ridiculous, ie. because there's so much of you to love. Finally I came up with the answer, "Because you keep changing". We might not have noticed how much we've changed over the past three years, but we acknowledge that we have. Every day and I love the same person I married, but I also meet a new person. Some who just had a dream or two. When I come home from work, I follow up on what she's done during the day, and sometimes during the day we catch up with each other. We guide and advise each other in decisions that change who we are, and who we will become. We share, we love, we grow.

I could go on, but I have to get some sleep. Plus I need to spend a good quantity of quality time with my queen.

Book =/ Movie

2006-09-07T00:08:00.000-06:00

I don't have the proper logic symbol to indicate 'not equal', but I should not have been surprised that after spending three hours of my life watching a Russian movie, subtitled in English, based on a Polish Science Fiction book, that the author of the book hated the movie. Other critics saw the movie and the book as two seperate things. I should have seen that coming, because even with the first movie that I had the opportunity to both read the book and see the movie - Jurassic Park by Michael Critchon - I could blantently see that the two artistic works were similar but different. You can't fit the same amount of material in a two hour movie that you can in a 300 page novel. It's just not possible. And countless other movies have done the same thing, and not just the ones based on novels. Some movies take short stories and run with them such as I, Robot; Bicentennial Man; Minority Report; even that awful movie Johnny Mnemonic. Perhaps I'm a little cornered here looking only at sci-fi, but that's the kind of stuff I have experience with.

To sum up, I have a strong impression that I should read the book. Hence I bought it.

Back in class

2006-09-06T23:36:00.000-06:00

Today was a bit of a waste of time in my eyes to go to U of A. First off, my first class was cancelled. I was two minutes late, and I wound up missing the entire thing! I talked with a couple of guys from the class, and they said that the prof is Africa for two weeks, and we have a sub for the moment. The course pack is available, and there was a brief syllabus, but other than that I missed the sub telling everyone that he couldn't write down his email address or his name because there was no pen. Great.

With three hours until my next class, I wandered for about an hour, then I went to drop off my perscription, knowing that it would take some time to fill. Not that it's difficult to find the meds, it's just that I was pretty sure that they would have to double check with the doctor that it was the right meds. I was right. When I went after Economics, I was told that same story that I've heard almost every time I've gone to fill my meds.

I made a stop at the Institute building, and the only class that I would be able to take would be Book of Mormon 1. Again. I find it a little difficult to find the motivation to take an insitute course since I've already graduated from the program, and received my post-grad. I know that I need spiritual studies to compliment my secular studies, but that's another kettle of fish altogether. I also realized that there are a lot of people that I've been out of touch with over the summer, and it was good to see everyone again!

I am so glad I decided to take Econ 204 as one of my last courses. First and foremost, 99% of the people in the class are first years. Heh heh. I'm going to mop the floor with these guys! Second of all, the course is not designed to add another 15 hours a week of work on the already huge work load of engineers. Hence there are no assignments, and all exam material is taken from the notes. The only catch, is that you have to show up in class, and take notes, because there is nothing posted online. All the same, hee hee hee. Swish! SO glad I'm taking this course when I am!

And on a less serious note, I got a view of the character designs for the new Transformers movie. All I can say, is that they are much different from what I remember, but they do have a slick look to them.

I've also revamped the links bar on the site. The blog where I got these pics is now listed there, as well as some more of my favourite webcomics.

BRILLIANT

2006-09-03T23:45:00.000-06:00

Foolish me forgot how web-based entry windows work. And I also forgot that if you have more than one account it will log you out of one, and into the other. I now realize that if you are doing a blog entry, FINISH IT BEFORE YOU GO ABOUT DOING ANY OTHER MULTITAKING!!!

I just lost an entry because of that error, so I'll try to get it spit out again, quickly.

I was in charge of the store today, and I will tomorrow. I think it sucks because I had to miss church, and I will be working on a holiday. Hope that won't happen next month, because Thanksgiving is the same day as my birthday. This holiday/birthday scheduling won't happen again until 2017, which is eleven years from now. My dad has the day off, and wants Cailtin and I to visit. Another reason that I probably won't show up at work on October 9, even if I'm scheduled.

I also talked to my dad about the fact that I don't have enough money for tuition, and he said that he could cover what I come short. I hope I don't have to ask for much, but rent is going up, and my hours are going down. Not a good combo.

Caitlin and I saved some money when we went swimming at Grant MacEwan Saturday. We showed up 30 minutes before close, so we were let in for one admission from our 10-visit pass instead of the usual two. w00t!

I think things are going to turn out okay.

No such thing as an average day

2006-09-02T00:15:00.000-06:00

After all the freaking out with the lost merchendise, there was a calm in the storm. My AM prevented an act of credit card fraud, and that instantly raised morale! We got an notice from the District Loss Prevention manager with a decription of someone with a stolen card. I didn't think much of it until I noticed my AM march into the back room with a very determined look on her face. I did a bit of a double take when I saw a person matching the description in the store. I was helping a customer at the time, and I did my best to keep on with that. My first manager once told me, "The customer is the focus", and that was never more true than at that moment. Caitlin later told me that acting like nothing unusual was going on was the best thing I could have done. I agreed to stay until the dust settled, but that was around 8:30pm, so I just stayed until close. Crazy day!

Less than a week before classes start again! OIE! I'm quite sure that I'm not going to finish the books that I bought last month, but I have read two. Mind you, I didn't buy Calculating God, but I read it all the same. I also renewed it in case I need to reference to it within the first week of classes. Who am I kidding? I should just return it, and then buy it. Caitlin wants to buy it, and I don't blame her. I could see her reading that one at least five times. I got a copy of "Solaris" from the library the other day, and it's not the book. The library doesn't have a copy of the George Clooney version, but rather they have a 2-disc edition of the Russian version, with English subtitles. Wow. It is tough to watch. Not gory or disturbing, just long, quiet, artistic, and difficult to follow, since it's in Russian. Unless you're following along with the subtitles, you are VERY lost. Almost like reading an abridged version of the book. I also read one of the short stories in the William Gibson collection I bought. I wanted to read Johnny Mnemonic because I heard that the movie sucked, and I wanted to see if this was a matter of Hollywood taking a good idea and putting it through the mill. I'm not sure what conclusions to draw, because I read the story rather quickly, and from what I read from Rotten Tomatoes, it was only "loosely based" on the story anyway. The story is still pretty freaky, and I also seem to remember that it was shot in Montreal. A gritty, dirty, and scary future looks a lot like downtown Montreal... Hmmm... I think the future just happened.

Well, there's a staff meeting tomorrow at nine, and Caitlin has been telling me to get to bed for 20 minutes straight now. Tah tah.

Don't say it

2006-08-26T22:33:00.000-06:00

If you're having a bad day, never ever say any of the following. Don't even think it, or think about thinking it!
1- Well, it can't get any worse, can it?
2- At the least we got through the worst of it.
3- I can't think of anyone else who is having a worse day than me!

First, those statements are false. Second, by thinking, begining to think, or saying any of those phrases, their negativity is brought out twicefold. Am I exagerating? Maybe. Maybe not.

All I know is that I was nervous when I came into work today, because I knew I would have to face my manager, and try to explain what happened to about $1000 worth of stock. Surprising, that went over quite well. I answered all his questions the best I could, didn't go into a fit, and neither did he. Perhaps he was too jetlagged. I don't know. What I do know, is that less than an hour after we opened, someone got a five-finger discount on a $280 19" LCD computer monitor. All three of us, including my manager were on the floor at the time. NOT GOOD. The rest of the day was interupted at regular intervals by visits and phones calls from Mall Security and EPS. We were still able to sell a goodly amount by the end of the day, but I was still pretty shaken. Thankfully, I have tomorrow off.

Despite the missing stock, Jon was still impressed with the way I handled the store. He received a minimal amount of phone calls, and they weren't pressing matters. The big crisises I was able to handle between Liz and other managers and associates in the city. Reach out and find someone! That's what I did. It was still uber freaky being the manager for three days, especially when we had someone go home early for medical reasons, and I had less than an hour to find someone to cover the rest of the shift. I was faced with the possibility of closing early, but all it took was a couple of phone calls, and the problem was quelled. Management is hard! I can only imagine what it's going to be like raising a family now.

At least with the emergency scheduling, I knew that all the employees would be coming back next week. That wasn't the case at Northgate, where one of the employees put in their resignation. When the manager was gone. There was one employee left to fend for the entire store. He's a seasoned sales associate, so he could handle things, but it was nonetheless freaky to the extreme. Plus, once the manager comes back, there is still the problem of there being only two people on staff, and one of those associates is going to part-time in a couple weeks.

Ah yes, then there was the news that I received today for Caitlin. Her AM called with a bit of news that made my week seem like a cakewalk. Cailtin's manager quit. The AM was scheduled to have her last day on Friday, but she's going to stick around for at least another week until they have everything settled. Or the store shuts down. One or the other. I'm hoping the former. Caitlin might have to step into the shoes of management a little sooner than she thought, but I really hope that things will stablize downtown.

Why is it so hard to find people who will stay on with retail? Is it the sales? Interacting with people? Fear of rejection? Fear of sucess? Low wages? Not enough incentives? Or dream of something better?

Life is hard. Why? Because it takes work.

Can you say "addiction"?

2006-08-26T02:20:00.000-06:00

It's funny when I read a new webcomic, I have to read all the archives. Even though I already have 34 webcomics on my favourites, and there are a few others I read that aren't on the favourites list, I added another.

I'm going to bed now. I already took my meds, so I can sleep easy knowing that. After I get to work tomorrow, that's going to be a different story.

Today? I'll say this much. I didn't anticipate so much trouble, and managing isn't quite what I imagined it would be.

All by Myself

2006-08-24T23:07:00.000-06:00

Somehow my mind seems to float on the Chirs Columbus production of Home Alone. At first when Kevin discovers that he's home alone, it's awesome! He runs around the house screaming, jumping on beds, and riding his sled down the stairs and into the snow. I did none of the listed things, but I did stay up until 4am this morning watching random crap on YouTube. The weird thing is that I only slept for three hours, and then I was awake, and couldn't go back to bed. I did take my meds, so I don't think I'm going on an upswing right now, but it was a little odd. I'm going to try to get to bed a little earlier tonight.

The other somewhat freaky thing is keeping the store together. Albeit, LD isn't that tough of a place to hold down, but it is a little daunting to be in charge.

"First rule of management... everything is your fault" - Hopper, A Bug's Life, Pixar, 1997

Keeping tabs on everyone, making sure that things get done, and most of all, making sure that the customers leave the store happy are responsabilities that get added to the pile of making sales, troubleshooting, and receiving shipment. I'm just glad that Liz talked me through closing yesterday. That was a lifesaver, especially backing up the system. Somethings are assumed that you know, and it's also assumed that if I don't know, I'll figure it out. One thing I learned the hard way, is that it's important to close the batch each night! Sure you'll get impressive numbers the second night, but then it gets a little whacked to get the DR right. Bleh.

I have yet to recieve an email from my wife, who is in Banff still, and will be there until Sunday. We have spoken on the phone a couple of times, but I do not look forward to seeing the phone bill, since all the calls have been collect. Still, it does feel good to hear her voice. It would be nicer if we were together, and it would be great if I was still in Banff with her.

The time I spent in Banff felt like I was there to hurry up and relax. If there is such a thing. I spent more time relaxing at the Orr's and the Pierce's than I did during the five hours I was in Banff. Or maybe it was six. Nevertheless, it wasn't much. I wish I could have been there overnight at least. If we had our own car, that could have worked. As it was, it didn't. Fortunately for me, I was able to get rides from my sisters who were planning on going to Banff, and Liz lives downtown, so it wasn't difficult for me to get to the bus on time. I was still tired when I got on that bus though. Hence I didn't correct the blantent error of @@, instead of 22, in the date. I thought it was appropo.

Anywho, I should get off to bed. I still want to finish Calculating God before the week is out. It's quite a read, and it's also very thought provoking. I do believe in God, so it's kind of gratifying to see this athiest get hit over the head by aliens that have scientifically proven the existance of God. Hee hee.

Seemed like a good idea

2006-08-22T11:20:00.000-06:00

@@ Auguser 2006

Right now, sitting on this luxary bus in downtown clgary at 6:30am, I am seriously hoping that this vacation was worth it. The bus seems equiped with a DVD player, so I was wise to bring my headphones. However, if I fall asleep on the 3 hour trip and miss the flick, I'm not going to be put out. I've already seen four movies in the past two days. The village caitlin and I watched on Sunday morning at the Tolley's while we folded up our laundry. Nanny McFee, we also watched together, but the location was at the Orr Theatre, also known as their Theatre room. RV and Larry the Cable Guy:Health Inspector I watched at the Pierce's. Thankfully Liz but Isobel down for bed before we watched LtCG:HI, because that is not a kid's show. Heavy on the cruude humour, I'm quite glad that Cailtin didn't see it either.

I am glad that I did get to spend some time with my sibs and in-laws. I made some interesting discoveries, such as the fact the Gail (Chris' mom) was college buddies with the owner of the Candy Shop in Banff.

Long Overdue

2006-08-22T11:17:00.000-06:00

Written on iPAQ, 19 August 2006, 11:46pm

A lot of things tend to get shoved into the background. Taking time to write a blog entry, talk with siblings and parents, do laundry, and taking a vacation seem to presently come to mind. I also forgot to take my meds last night, but I didn't flare up at work today so I think I did okay. I have today's dose working through me right now. Caitln made sure to get me back on track.

The last time I saw my family was longer than a day ago though. Dad, Caitlin and I went to Calgary on July 2, 2006 so I could participate in the blessing of Benjamin Arthur Orr. My new nephew, and Dad's first grandson. I was hoping that Caitlin and I would produce the first, but for all I know, our first child may be a daughter. Nevertheless, that's two grandchildren with a third on the way. The only disappointment was that Liz wasn't there. I'll see her and Isobel Monday, because I'm using the next two days to do a lot of things that are long overdue.

While we were waiting for a load of whites to dry, I got a call from Jessica to discuss arrangements for tomorrow. Good thing I told her the Tolley's number in the phone message I left earlier today. My vacation, or 2006 Banff trip, began as soon as I got off work today, because when I got home, the only thing Caitlin and I had in mind was to leave our apartment. Caitin will return Sunday, August 27, 2006. I will be back Tuesday, August 22, 2006, much sooner than my wife due the shortage of experienced staff.

Two days of vacation is still two days not at work, so I'm going to do my best to relax. I'm going to need it if I hope to survive this coming week. It would be nice to spend the entire week with my wife in Banff, but alas, not this year. At least I'm getting some time off, unlike last year. True last year I went to Las Vegas, but that was a convention for WFG, and I'm not doing anything with them anymore. Almost seems ironic, because I'm wearing one of the shirts I bought there.

On a side note, an odd coincidence was brought to my attention today. My assistant manager has the same nickname as my little sister. Further odd coincidence is that the former manager of Londonderry Source shares the same name as me. Hence I make sure to answer the phone using my proper name to avoid confusion. So far those are the only names that have caused confusion.

One down

2006-08-14T22:58:00.000-06:00

I finished Left Hand of Darkness an hour ago, and I must say it is an interesting read. I have no idea how we're going to be tearing this book apart in class, since class doesn't start for another four weeks. At first I thought the idea of people who can change gender was cool. By the end, it just seemed confusing. I have to read that book again, with a dictionary. I understood the book for the most part, but there were a multitude of words that are not in my vocabulary. I found the premise most intriguing. A lone man on an alien planet, his mission is to rouse interest and agreement to get the planet to join an interplanetary alliance. By the end of the book, the residents on the planet are more familiar to him than the people from the ship that dropped him off. Terran men and women seem alien to him. Facinating read, even though it didn't quite head in the direction that I anticipated with the mind-speak.

All the same, there are a lot of books to read, and I just finished one. Kind of scratching the surface. Meanwhile, Cailtin read one of the books on the reading list as well. I borrowed Calculating God from the library, and Caitlin read it in two days. I swear, she's a goat when it comes to books. She devours them. Over and over again too. She wants me to buy the book, so that means she'll read it at least 10 times by the time the year is out. She really liked it. I'm going to read that one next, since I have to return it September 2. From what Caitlin has told me, it's going to be a crazy read. Aliens land in Toronto, and the first thing they say is "Take me to your palentologist." Local people are mentioned in the book too, such as Prime Minister Chretien and Peter Mansbridge. I think it's interesting.

Good times

2006-08-14T12:50:00.000-06:00

I really shouldn't say that life is all that bad right now. It's just that when I went to work on Friday I got caught in the downpour that soaked the city. I was mostly dry, save my pants, my jacket, and my socks. I was okay feetwise until I went through a puddle. That's when it was made clearly obvious that although my boots are watertight, lined with Gore-tex, and will keep your feet warm in temperatures as low as -30C, there is one problem with them. Each boot has a large gaping hole. Since that is where you put your foot in, the only boot that doesn't have that problem was one designed by Newfies.

Even in the rain, it only took about 20 minutes to get to Londonderry from the moment I set my foot out the door to when I arrived. I really need to lube my bike now, but I'll get to that later today, since I have the day off.

I was hoping to go see Monster House today with Caitlin, but that's up in the air. We'll see how she feels in an hour.

The company picnic on Saturday was a great sucess. I'm really glad I went to Londonderry, because no one from Westmount showed. They had other plans involving friends, family, and... video games. The fact that no one had a car played a part too I think, but the 128 goes right from Westmount to Hawrlack Park. Their loss.

There is a slight possibility that I'll get Sunday and Monday off again next week, but I won't know until the schedule is written. Here's hoping.

The surprises keep coming

2006-08-11T11:27:00.000-06:00

I knew that I would have a tough time getting vacation time this summer, but now I know it's impossible. For a good chunk of the summer, I had the hope to go to Banff with my wife and some of my in-laws. That was cut down to a weekend, and now there is no hope whatsoever. First, the managers conference will take the manager at Londonderry to Barrie for a few days. During said time, the Assistant Manager will be gone to Grand Prairie to manage the store in absence of the manager, who will be in Barrie as well. That leaves me as the most experienced staff member to take care of the store. I'm not going to Banff during that time. Also, one of my co-workers needs the same weekend that I was hoping to use to go to Banff. That discouraged me, but what put the nail in the coffin was when I was refreshed on holiday policy. Minimum two-weeks notice for any vacation time. Schedule is already made, and I'm bound to it. Crumbs.

On the plus side, I am learning more store responsabilities, such as processing shipment, and doing Store Transfers. Cool stuff, plus I get to train new staff that we'll be hiring on. Oh boy.

Another great thing about the store, there is a microwave. And it works! Lunch is going to be so much easier now. Speaking of which I need to get that together. I still don't know how long it will take me to get to Londonderry, but I'm estimating 30 minutes. It took me 20 minutes to ride home from Belvadere station yesterday, which is about 10 minutes from Londonderry Mall. Again, approximations. Some stuff doesn't require preparation, such as the chocolate coated sesame snaps that I found at Save-On Foods the other day. So so so so so good!

When I went to the U of A yesterday for my bi-polar clinic, I arrived over an hour early. I decided to take a look in the bookstore to see if there were any books for my courses in yet, and there were. My Comparative Literature (or C LIT) 342 had most, if not all of the books there. Eight novels and a compelation of short stories comprise the list. Uh oh. I bought five of them, since four were used (and thereby cheaper than new), and the compelation was a course pack, and hence a moderate, but fixed, price. The other four, or three, novels that I left weren't that expensive. One of them was Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer. Another was Solaris, the novel that served as the basis for the George Clooney flick. I might just watch the movie. I know I should read the book, and I started reading one of the books I bought, with the goal to read them all before classes start, but we'll see.

Same job, new location

2006-08-09T11:25:00.000-06:00

It's official now. I'm being transferred to Londonderry, and I'm glad of it. Nothing against Westmount, it's a nice store, great co-workers, but low traffic. My reasons for going to Westmount in the first place was:
a) Nathan needed people badly since staff was cut down to one person, himself;
b) I was told it would be temporary. One week, maybe two, and then I would be back at Kingsway.

Since then, Kingsway is up to full staff again, and they are running very well. Therefore, there is no opening for me until September when part-time help is needed. As for Londonderry, they need another person there to bring the number of staff to four. With the amount of business they do, the store can easily support four staff members, while Westmount can do well with three.

I haven't done the bike commute to Londonderry yet, but I figured that it would be equidistant compared to Westmount, and that took about 25 minutes or so. Of course once the snow hits it'll have to be ETS as the primary mode of transportation, where it's secondary right now.

Although I am looking forward to this new position, there is one thing bothering me. No matter where I go, I don't think I'm going to be able to take the full holiday that I was planning for all year. Due to the labour shortage across the city, and the district, we are having trouble keeping stores staffed. So taking a week off is a bit of a pinch. Plus I've only been with the company for two months, and I'm going part-time in the fall. On top of this, the week I've been planning to go overlaps with the Managers Conference in Ontario. Every store will be down an employee during the time I want to take vacation! I really need time off too. Last year I didn't get to go to much of anywhere because of May 16, and then I was working two jobs to try to cover the lost time. Bleh. I seem to remember writing this previously...

Anywho, I need to get downtown to get my wife some water. The Culligan man hasn't shown up for a couple of weeks, the A/C is on the malfal, and she left her bottle at home. Not a good combo when you add on the fact that she's pregnant.

Cursing count rises

2006-08-09T11:21:00.000-06:00

The following was written at 11:00pm August 7, 2006
I don't know if I'm cut out to be management material. Today we had a couple come in who wanted a refund on a purchase. They had the original receipt, and we had no trouble getting the Visa refund to work. Trouble started when they wanted a receipt. Policy dictates that we have to hold onto the originals, and give the customers a photocopy if they really need it. We can do photocopies, but we have to tape the receipts to a blank piece of 8.5x11 paper to feed through the fax. But I fed the paper into the fax wrong, so we got two pages of black smudge. Now the customers are telling me that I'm wasting their time and that I don't need to do this. I should just give them a receipt, and then we can make our own copy on our own time. Then the machine ran out of paper. No problem, just feed some more in, while I get the yellow receipt attatched. Up to this point, I was doing ok. Then the customer mentions that they still need the receipt for not only the refund, but the original purchase. Another thing to tape down, nothing major. I got a bit short when the customer told me to take the staple out of the receipt because it wouldn't feed properly if I didn't. I tore the staple out, and a sizable chunk of the receipt with it. Then I swore, and instantly felt ashamed for doing it.

When I fed the paper into the fax, I didn't realize that I had improperly secured the tension plate. I thought it had something to do with the Printer film, which was also running low. I was very frustrated at this point, and subsequently left the store in search of some place where I could find a copier that worked. I cursed again when I found that the place I went previously for copies was closed for holiday Monday. Thankfully, the Bell booth was kind enough to accomidate me, free of charge. I gave the customers the yellow receipts, and we kept the photocopy. Half an hour to get that fixed, and the fax was still on the fritz. Stayed on the fritz until close too. The sad thing was, I didn't care.

Oh yeah, then there was the fire alarm that blared for 20 minutes because it couldn't be turned off until the fire department came. Grrr...

Good thing the DR balanced, or I might have put my fist through something.

There was happy elements to this day. First, it ended. Second, Caitlin and I were able to go down to Beaumont and visit with the Tolleys, and Caitlin didn't get nauseated on the way there because we travelled there in a 2006 Dodge Calibur. A rental, of course, one of the nice things about being over 25. Hee hee. It's going to cost about $90, hence we don't rent a car very often. Good food, good company, a good DVD episode of Futurama, a haircut for Caitlin, and a couple loads of laundry, plus the fact that we'll be able to get to sleep in a cool bed tonight. I think it was worth the trip.

Thank God for the seventh day

2006-08-05T22:39:00.000-06:00

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." - Gen. 2:2

I'm not professing to be God, but I am very grateful for the seventh day, in my case Sunday. After all the craziness of work this week, I really need a day off to relax, get my mind of Daily Reports, and be with my wife.

Turns out that my sister-in-law was in premature labour, not full-on labour, so she didn't deliver her baby. She's that much closer though! I swear we got a bit of baby fever going on Kallie about to pop and Caitlin due in March.

This is the only entry I've made today using my desktop keyboard. All the other entries were made using iPAQ and the new keyboard. I found that using a Food Court tray as an impromptu lap desk works quite well for typing with the portable keyboard. Of course, sitting at a table works just as well.

We learn.

Tomorrow is another day

2006-08-05T22:35:00.000-06:00

6:40pm

No word for Mher, an appointment with Lock Surgeon tomorrow at 10am, and some good food is all we have to show for today. We couldn't get Lock Surgeon to come by any earlier than 8pm, and the mall would have been locked down for the night at that point. We just made an appointment for tomorrow before the store opens. You would think that I would have called the other locksmith operation in the city after that, but didn't. I was kind of flustered today. Hopefully the smith won't break the lock, but we won't know until tomorrow. What's done is done, and the only thing lost was the day's sales. Considering that some customers went to Kingsway to get their shopping done, it wasn't a total loss for the company.

Nevertheless, I am not going to make my comissions this pay period, and hence I put in a request for a transfer. Ryan is considering putting me up at Londenderry. It's about equidistant for me to bike there, and the manager there has mentioned the possibilty of having me work there. I would like to make money, but I would also like to have a vacation of sorts this year. The way things are shaping up, I might not be going to Banff at the end of the month.

Caitlin is done her soup now, so I guess we should get a movin' on home. I was expecting to find the Tolley clan here, but there was nobody, not even the mother to be here. She was discharged today, and the nurses didn't mention if she delivered or not. We'll make some phone calls when we get home.