The Joys of Caffeine

Random Thoughts and Musings

2009-06-14T22:48:00.002-04:00

Many moons ago I started writing on this blog, back in April of 2005 to be exact which makes this blog a little over 4 years old. A lot has happened since I started writing here and a lot has changed. Now don't worry I'm not about to go into a big monolog about what has and what has not happened since then (mostly because that would take me too long to write and frankly I'm being lazy at the moment).

The net result is I am no longer the same person I was when I started writing here and my goals and thoughts are a lot different. One constant is I am still me. I still have goals, I still work, and I still function as part of society. I guess I have undergone a lot of change since I started writing this blog and I think I am slowly starting to get a better grip on who I am and what I want to do.

If you're reading this question a very simple question probably popped into your mind: why the fuck would I care? Well having a good understanding of yourself and where you want to go can mean the difference between being successful and just getting along. I'm still in the latter but less so day by day and year by year.

I've always liked having this site around, mostly because it was my first blog and like the first person you sleep with there is some weird twisted attachement that has formed. I just don't want to get rid of it and I have never pretended that it is anything other than a personal blog so I can vent and rant and just go off on random topics kind of like this one. This site is my own personal soap box unassociated from well pretty much anything else I do.

I am not sure yet what if anything this means for this little blog other than I'm not about to delete it... yet... I have contemplated deleting the posts and starting fresh and linking to everything else I do online. Still up in the air about that. I guess in a strange sort of way I'm just asserting that this is my own little space that no one can get at and its important to have.

Changes and balance

2009-03-15T18:00:00.001-04:00

Over the past couple weeks... actually I would even say over the past couple months I have really be noticing change. And I am not speaking about myself but change in general. I drive past places that I have driven past for years and things just look different. Change is probably one of the few constants in life yet we all cling to the things that are static.

I see people who do the same things over and over again living their lives in almost a bubble. They don't care about the world they don't care about anything (at least this is what it seems like). They spend years going to work coming home, watching TV and then doing it all over again. Their lives are spend doing virtually nothing yet all around us change happens.

Unless you live in a sleepy town in the middle of nowhere its hard not to notice changes. The face of the city I live in has changed. There are more buildings around now than there were even 10 years ago. I see all of this change and think about that proverbial person who sits at home night in night out watching TV doing nothing. I don't want to be that person.

At times I feel like I have wasted tons of time doing meaningless things and then at others I see that I have accomplished a fair bit. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. Could I have done more with my life up until now? Of course I could have but I can also say I've accomplished a few things and enjoyed life and experienced it.

Being very cognizant of change makes me want to accomplish more; there are ideas that pop into my head yet when it comes time to doing something about them the scope of the idea and the effort involved seems like too much and in the end not much gets done. Breaking the ideas down and keeping at them for a while will work but again its making that effort. Its hard finding that balance but then again to really accomplish change should there really be any balance? I'm starting to think that from time to time you need to forgo the balance and take the chance for change.

I think its time to take some of these ideas and make some changes. Keeping everything balanced is fine but if it means you come home and sit down watching the TV night in, night out might not be worth it. The reality of the effort and change doesn't have to be profound. To take an hour out of each day to work on a project might be a lot so for arguments sake say you only spend 30 minutes a day. At the end of the year you'll have spent 182.5 hours working on that project (its the equivalent of almost 5 work weeks). Unless you're trying to build a house that time can really add up to some thing. You can keep the balance to some degree but don't forsake change.

Quiet

2009-02-08T17:35:00.001-05:00

I don't remember the last time I sat quietly and did pretty much nothing. For the last half an hour I've been sitting with the baby napping in her swing. The humidifier is going in the background and a train just went by. I haven't had this much quiet in a while. I normally don't notice the fact that the humidifier is going other than to put some water into it.

There is too much hussle and bussle in life its nice to occasionally get a reminder to stop and pause. This type of pause really forces me to realize that a lot of the stresses and seriousness of life is imagined or imposed. How important are all of those emails you spent all day procrastinating about?

I have enjoyed my moment of silence and I'm going to try including them more often in my days.

I'm bored of winter already

2009-01-28T19:55:00.001-05:00

Normally you'd never hear me say something like that but I'm getting a tad bored of the cold weather and lots of snow. I know this is something I should be used to but over the past couple winters there has been a lot more snow that normal and I think I'm starting to feel the winter blahs. I've never given it much creedence but this year I'm really looking forward to some warmer weather.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the baby has really kept us at home and not doing much, other than looking after her. Maybe it's something else but I am definitely ready to shed the winter jacket. I still think the snow is pretty and I think I will always like winter but for whatever reason this year I just need a warm break - too bad that's not planned till next winter.

Do you get the winter blahs? What do you do about them?

Happy New Years!!!!!

2009-01-04T12:11:00.001-05:00

Happy 2009 everyone I know almost no one comes to this blog anymore but I don't write much so that doesn't surprise me. If you do happen to stumble on this blog or happen to be one of the few people that have keep me on your RSS list I hope you have a great 2009. I'm hoping that this year isn't as fucking crazy as last year for me. 2 Jobs, a new house, and most importantly a baby make for a really busy year. I just want this year to slow down a bit so I can enjoy it.

It's a Girl!!

2008-10-10T10:47:00.001-04:00

I know I haven't been posting much on here over the past little while and lately I haven't been posting on any of my sites because things have been so incredibly busy. Well most of this was surrounding one event in my life - the fact my wife was pregnant. Well I've got great news, she's no longer pregnant. We are now the proud parents of a baby girl that was born this past weekend. I'm brimming with pride and essentially telling everyone I know or encounter that I'm a dad now.

Its a very profound event in a persons life. I'll never get over that and never forget it. This little life is so dependent on me and especially my wife.

A Coffee and some Emails

2008-08-25T12:59:00.001-04:00

Right now I'm sitting in a Starbucks having a cappuccino and checking my emails - some work some not. I think this is the coolest thing that I'm no longer tied to being in an office to be able to do some work. Shit being able to sit in a different environment every day to do some work or even some blogging is very neat.

The thing that I'm curious about is why so many employers have an issue with allowing something like this. Today happens to be a bit of an anomaly since I'm waiting for a meeting but normally he doesn't like me working off site. My productivity would be so much better if I could work independent of an office.

Now I think its time to get something to eat and go to my meeting.

An Introspective Day

2008-08-21T12:41:00.001-04:00

Some days you get up and you're full of energy and ready to take on the world and other days you're tired and lethargic. For me the past few days have been somewhat introspective days. I'm not entirely sure why but I've been thinking about where I am in life and what will be coming up. I've had decent year so far and I'm happy with where I am at the moment. Not everything is perfect my finances are still pretty fucked up but I know I'm making the changes that I need to improve them and that it will take a while.

I've been thinking about goals lately - I don't have a lot of them at the moment. Maybe this is a good thing. Having too many goals can translate to not accomplishing any of them. On the other hand having none can be just as bad because you're floating around doing nothing. The main goal for me right now is to get a few things back on track:

Writing
Finances
Prepping for the Baby (House preparations)

The past couple months have been busy and I just haven't been making the time to write as much as I would have liked. The thing is that I've been lazy and the first thing that's fallen off has been the writing. But I find that when this happens I really miss it. I write on a couple blogs and I just haven't been giving them their due attention; even this one. I think its time to start making a bit more of an effort on this front.

My finances - well they're getting back on track. I'm now paying my bills on time and spending close to the same amount of money that I'm bringing in. This is nice but its not going to pay down my debt any faster. This one is more of an active goal/project

The baby is due in a couple months and there's still a bunch of stuff that needs to be done before the arrival. Most of tasks associated with this are physical in that the house needs to be ready for the baby's arrival. The biggest problem with this goal/project is that the list of items to do around the house seems to be never ending and its daunting. For some reason that alone makes me not want to get going on it. I think a bit more proactivity will help here.

Now those are the active goals or projects that I'm working on. They're all very immediate and ongoing. Even after the baby arrives there will be a lot of stuff that needs to be done around the house and I need to just keep plugging at this. But what about the bigger goals? I can't just have a handful of small goals that I'm working towards what about the bigger goals? What do I want to do? Well the finances goal does partially lend itself to the bigger and longer term goals. The things I want to do take time and money and with a lot of money I could take time to accomplish them.

But what are these goals? If I had the time to do anything I wanted what would I do? I'm not sure but I think its time to just put some ideas down on paper and see where they take me. Here are some that popped into my mind recently:

Climb mount everest
Summer in France - or at the least learn French
Visit Japan
Sail the Caribbean
Get a Masters Degree
Be worth 100 Million Dollars

Ok so the last one isn't overly realistic - who cares. Some of these are merely ideas and I'm not even sure if they're all valid. Now on top of the big grandious ideas I've also been thinking about what to do next. What my work goals are, where I want to be in a few years and more importantly who I want to be in a few years. Some of this thinking also involves the little one thats on the way how does that come into the picture.

Lots of questions... few solid answers but the lack of these answers is a problem I think. Maybe I need to take a day or two off and just chill and ponder these big questions.

Sick as a dog

2008-08-18T14:23:00.001-04:00

In my last post I was debating about what to do with this site and the thoughts are still bumping around in my head. This was always meant to be a personal blog but now that statement doesn't conjure exciting images in my head. My life has calmed down and settled down quite considerably - I've even got a kid on the way. With that said will there still be people interested in what I have to say or do I change/expand what I write about here?

I already have two other blogs and I've experimented with others over the years they've all been very niche and a couple have made me a little money (I stress little). How do I expand what I write about here? With a name like the joys of caffeine and smoking and alcohol as images in the header one would think this was more about partying than anything else. I'm still not sure about the site - I think I'll keep it for a while and maybe even write once in a while. The next order of business will be to remove that header since I'm not about the smoking and drinking anymore (I still do both but on a smaller scale) and there aren't likely to be exciting stories coming out of it.

This is a bit of a mute question since I don't have many readers left - How would you change a personal blog to reflect your life changes? How would you introduce more interesting topics?

Final Note: Yes I am sick - managed to get a cold.

Torn about this space

2008-08-14T08:57:00.001-04:00

I've had this site up for literally years but over the past year or almost two I haven't been posting. This site was my initial foray into blogging but unfortunately the site wasn't structured in any way shape or form. Topics were all over the place and it was often nothing more than a place for me to vent.

Its nice to be able to just go off about something or someone just because... but it doesn't work when you want to talk about a couple topics and not much more. A lot has changed for me since I first started this thing up and now I'm wondering if it even makes sense to keep it around. I guess I could shift a few things around and simply modify the site... I don't know.

Should I just delete it? Keep the content in some archive?

*sigh* I'm not certain and I don't really know what to do about it. I guess it doesn't hurt to just leave it where it is for the time being. Maybe if I play around with the design it'll get me going again on this site.

One thing at a time!

2008-04-15T09:02:00.001-04:00

I'm really frustrated this morning and trying to get to too many things at once. I have to keep reminding myself that I can only do one thing at a time. Start one task and see it through till its finished rather than trying to multitask on too many silly things at the same time. I've discovered that when I try to multitask one thing happens - nothing gets done well and all of the tasks take longer than if I were to do them sequentially but individually.

We live in this hurry up and give me that brain-fart faster than you did yesterday. Unfortunately most of those brainfarts are really just that brainfarts that don't really mean anything in the long run. I am really on this big simplicity kick lately and doing one thing at a time is part of that. It's been a bit of a struggle lately since I keep trying to pull myself into three or four directions at once which doesn't help. A perfect example of this is this post - I got distracted twice and almost started something else once.

ONE THING AT A TIME - you'll be surprised what you might be able to accomplish.

I'm alive!

2008-04-11T15:50:00.001-04:00

I know I haven't written on here in ages - I've been busy and when I'm busy I have to stop spreading myself too thin. This blog is unfortunately one of the things that ends up dropping off the list really fast. Its not that I don't want to write, I do, but this blog is a personal blog for me and I've come to the realization that I'm something of a private person. Because of that I end up not writing here as much as I used to... the weird thing is this blog is an annonymous blog so I should be able to write a boatload more than I feel like I should/can.

I'm still up in the air about this site - I keep it anonymous yet I still don't want to write too much that's personal. I guess I know how easily someone could figure out what I write. The amusing thing is nothing I would write here would be damaging in any way shape or form. So I struggle with this site... its my personal blog but I don't want to write too much thats personal which doesn't leave me with much. The net result is rather than think about it this site just does nothing. Add to that a busy schedule and *poof* I barely remember it exists.

I installed this cool plugin for firefox that might let me write a bit more called Scribefire. This app lets me start and write a post out of my browser wherever I might be and pushes it to blogger. I guess I'll see if it has any bearing on frequency of posts. Other than that I'm alive doing alright... keeping myself out of trouble for the most part.

Are there any readers left out there?

Day 7 - 3 days dry, 3 wet (today is pending)

2008-01-07T10:58:00.000-05:00

So we're 7 days into the new year and I'm quite impressed by the fact that I've managed to keep the drinking down a fair bit. Its a lot harder than I thought it would be but at the same time its been a lot easier than I thought it would be too. I was expecting headaches and withdrawal symptoms but they're not happening.

Last year drinking became a hobby for me more than anything else. It was a way of escaping. In the past I would see 200 movies a year as way to escape from reality. Recently its been drinking. I think its time to grow up and start acting normal - I don't recognize myself anymore.

Bent Reality

2007-12-10T10:24:00.000-05:00

I haven't written here in so long I'm amazed that the site still exists. I used to write here when I was bored at a job I didn't really like. They didn't like something and gave me a nice package to go away. I'm onto job number 2 since and its been going well I guess. I cannot imagine how much I've changed since that boring waste of time.

Its amazing when things do change and you look back and realize holy fuck I spent 6 years doing nothing! I could have done so much more!

Ahh but hind site is 20/20. Needless to say I've missed writing on here. I would vent creatively about the woes in my life and just shoot the shit. I even made a couple friends as a result of this blog. I never made any money off of it which was I think part of the idea when I started. Funny the reasons we do things sometimes.

I think I would like to start writing again on this site. I honestly think it might make me a bit happier to vent creatively an mostly anonymously on this blog. Right now about the only person that hears my venting is my wife... why should she have all the fun? Actually it would be nice to have a general personal soapbox to just write.

When I first started this site I really cared about how many people were coming to the site and the comments they left. I even put some monetization on it. I think its time to just write and if people come and leave comments then all the better but I think its just time to write.

I am Alive

2007-07-23T10:00:00.000-04:00

I've had an incredibly busy summer so far and I had to drop certain things from my plate... this was one of them. I really enjoyed writing on here and I plan to get back to it at some point in the future... heck this might be the post that does it. I'm not quite there yet though and I wanted to make sure all the 2 or 3 people left that come back here know I'm alive... married, and enjoying life at the moment.

Fallen leaves on the ground!

2007-03-09T09:44:00.000-05:00

Woo hoo! working from home on a friday! Doesn't get fucking much better than that... wait sure it does but its pretty sweet either way. I can finally get caught up on some of that work stuff.

I know I haven't been posting, mostly because I've been busy with work and planning for the wedding and that kinda fun stuff. The worst part is I have lots of shit to write about but by the time I get to a comp its gone. Think about it, I take a subway every single day. This is cannon foder for so many different posts its unbelievable. But like I said... this work thing gets in the way (at least mentally)

Here's a couple vids that I thought were cool:
Video 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMUwJkaKTdY&mode=related&search=
Video 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hakhbINcoXU

Enjoy... I'll post at some point in the not too distant past

Another Experiment

2007-02-12T08:17:00.000-05:00

I've noticed that since I've started working my new job a couple things have been happening with this blog:

I post on Mondays

I seem to write about little experiments I try

All of the things I would write about I forget before I get a chance to write about them

So this week is time to start another little experiment! This might mean that I actually post a couple times this week; imagine that. Yes that was sarcasm.

Now onto the idea for this little experiment: Try to not drink every day this week. I would have said try not to drink at all during the week but we've got Valentines in the middle of the week so lets not be silly there will be drinking on that day. But the goal for me is to try not to drink as much as I have in the past. Money is one consideration but I've started to think I drink too much.

Take yesterday for example, I didn't drink but I met up with a friend for an early dinner and the first thing I wanted to do is buy a beer. Now there's nothing wrong with buying a beer when out with friends. But I've been drinking a bit too much lately and I'm starting to feel like I'm not being healthy at all. I've just been feeling like its too much and yesterday was a bit of an example when not buying a beer caused me some trepidation and angst.

This experiment is just more of an effort to cut back rather than a true experiment; I just don't want to feel like alcohol is my crutch and my bane due to the costs.

Ok; Monday post done. Time to get ready for work.

Tired

2007-01-29T08:28:00.000-05:00

I'm still playing hockey on sunday nights and last nights game was a late one; needless to say I got into bed close to 1:30 am with the full knowledge that I was getting up in 5 hours. I knew I'd be tired but holy fuck am I exhausted. Seriously I used to live on 5 hours of sleep today I think I might end up pouring an obsene amount of coffee and caffeine into my system just so I can stumble through the day. Fuck being coherent today, I'm just aiming for upright.

It makes you wonder why people will tire themselves out to the point of exhaustion like this, in my case I do really like the hockey but i used to do it just for fun. I don't need a great deal of sleep and had I gotten maybe another hour or two more I'd be right as rain but I didn't. Anyhow I should quit my bitching and start getting ready for work like I should have about 20 minutes ago.

I'll try to post about an experiment that we're trying tomorrow - Assuming we can get it started.

The silence on this blog

2007-01-22T08:38:00.000-05:00

You know originally I wrote on this blog as an excuse not to do work and I did this for close to two years. It was a great way to vent and kill time at the same time. Now with my new job there's no time for this and even if there was I wouldn't want to do it. I've actually managed to find a job that gives me a challenge and an opportunity so I won't fuck with it. Unfortunately that doesn't leave much time for writing on this blog.

What you ask? You've got tons of time... ah but if this were my only blog then I would be in complete agreement with you but it's not. I've got another and surprisingly it's already gotten more traffic than this one has in a couple years.

Now before anyone thinks I'm going to drop this site, rest assured I'm not! I like this site because it lets me write about whatever the fuck I please like and swear and all that fun stuff. I can write about hockey one day and then drinking the next and the fact that Hillary Clinton would get my vote on the third without anyone batting an eyelash. I've wanted to change the template for a while... maybe that's what this place needs for me to write more? I don't know but this is going to be my personal place to bitch and rant about shit how I want and when I want. So I'm not going away but there maybe spots of silence.

Happy New Year

2007-01-15T07:52:00.000-05:00

Wow it's been almost a whole month since I last posted; that's a long time. I've just kind of been in my own little bubble. I missed the whole new years post so happy new years everyone. There's no real resolutions this year, mostly because I didn't keep any of them last year.

The new job is great! I'm totally loving it but if I thought I had little time before I've got even less now (at least from a posting point of view). I just wanted to write a quick note; still alive just busy.

Resignation Day

2006-12-18T08:31:00.000-05:00

So I managed to find myself a new position that pays a whole hell of a lot less than my current one but I'm excited about starting there and I know that I'll have an instant impact to the company. It's small and in an area of work that I'm very familiar with. So that just leaves one thing to do... resign. I've only resigned a handful of times in my life and each time I did I had to deal with a negative reaction from my bosses... they were all distraught that I left and some of them got all defensive trying to get me to give them a good reason for leaving.

I'm not looking forward to actually resigning, here's hoping it goes smoothly.

Good Ol' Bob - Some humour

2006-12-12T15:11:00.001-05:00

Bob works hard at the plant and spends two nights each week bowling and
plays golf every Saturday.

His wife thinks he's pushing himself too hard, so for his birthday she
takes him to the local strip club for some fun.

The doorman greets them and says "Hey Bob, how ya doin?".

Bob's wife is puzzled and asks if he's been to this club before.

"Oh no" replied Bob. "He's on my bowling team".

When they are seated, a waitress asks Bob if he'd like his usual and
brings over a Budweiser.

His wife is becoming increasingly more uncomfortable and says "How did
she know you drink Budweiser?"

"I recognize her, she's the waitress at the golf club and I always have
a Bud at the turn Honey."

A stripper then come over to the table and throws her arms around Bob
and says "Hi Bobby. Want your usual table dance big boy?"

Bob's wife, now furious, grabs her purse and storms out of the club.

Bob follows her and spots her getting into a cab.

Before she can slam the door, he jumps in beside her.

Bob desperately tries to explain how the stripper must have mistaken him
for someone else, but his wife is having none of it.

She is screaming at him at the top of her voice calling him every four
letter word in the book.

The cabby turns around and says, "Geez, Bob you picked up a real bitch
this time!"

Happiness Experiment: Some Thoughs

2006-12-04T10:31:00.000-05:00

You know I've got to say this little experiment really did make a difference, I know that I didn't post anything over the weekend but I continued the experiment. So it's been a week since I started it and I'm overall in a bit of a better mood. I think I'll try to continue this for another week and see if any additional benefits come out of it.

OK back to pretending to work for a little bit - post later.

Happiness Experiment: Day 4

2006-12-01T16:35:00.000-05:00

I have to say yesterday was a pretty damned good day even though it was pissing rain all fucking day. Hydroplaning on the highway did freak me out a bit but at least nothing happened. Ok, now onto the happy moments from yesterday.

#1 - Seeing my buddy's military parade

One of my closest and oldest friends graduated from boot camp and had his military parade yesterday and I got to see it. It was good to see him actually accomplish something, he's been wasting away for years getting jobs when he needed cash but for the most part he just played video games. It was a very positive change in him and I'm happy for the fucker.

#2 - Being Congratulated for getting engaged

You see all of the buzz about my getting engaged has passed so when my buddy's parents (see point #1) congratulated me out of the blue I was susprised. I didn't think he'd mentioned my getting engaged to them. It was a rather pleasant thing since it was one of the first things they said. Again I've know them a long time but never talked to them much (and I don't think my buddy talks to them much either)

#3 - Cleaning @ Home

How can cleaning be a happy moment? Very simply I don't like being too sendintary; I like doing things. If I'm bored I'll typically go wash the dishes or something. Yesterday when I got home I just got into a lets start doing some cleaning before the weekend mode (got family coming on Saturday) and I managed to get a good chunk of shit done. Its always nice seeing progress.

Happiness Experiment: Day 3

2006-12-01T09:13:00.000-05:00

I know that this is a little late but here is what I came up with for day 3 of this little happiness experiment:

#1 - Reading at lunch

I know that this is starting to be a bit of a trend in that I'm reading at lunch and enjoying it. I've started reading a new business book; Seth Goodin's Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable and it's started off quite interesting. I guess reading a marketing book is a good thing especially since I came up with that business idea a couple days ago. It felt like I was accomplishing something and that was good.

#2 - Making dinner with my Fiance

One of the things that my fiance and I did when we first started dating was making mini-pizzas on tortilla flats. It was nice to make dinner together since this isn't something that happens all that often. Not to mention that the things were pretty damned good.

#3 - Watching Thank You for Smoking

While eating the mini-pizzas we watched a movie, Thank You for Smoking and I've got to say that I haven't seen a movie quite that funny in a long time. It was nice watching something satirical that played on something that I still do: Smoke. We both enjoyed the movie and had more than a few laughs. This was a nice and long happy moment - close to 2 hours.

This was day three of the experiment; I'll be posting day 4 a bit later on today.

Happiness Experiment: Day 2

2006-11-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

Well its day two of my little experiment and yes for those of you counting that means this is also day three in a row of my posting an item on this blog which hasn't happened for months. So how did day two go?

#1 - Finishing my book.

Just like yesterday I took some time at lunch to eat and read my book but today was a bit better in that I was able to finish my book. I don't get a chance to finish books very often but I'm done. I took the time over lunches and whenever I happened to be on the subway and finished the library book before it was overdue. Now all I've got to do is return it. It was a small accomplishment but one never the less and that made me happy. The book also made me think which is a great thing.

#2 - Coming up with a business idea

Why would this make me happy? Well around the time that I was in university and actually attending I was generating ideas at an alarming rate. I never did anything with them because they were just that ideas. Now that I'm older and in theory wiser I can actually take an idea and run with it. I spent most of my drive home from work mentally going through this idea that I had and what might be involved in getting it off the ground. It made that hour go by like a flash.

#3 - Finally hitting the gym

I've never been big on gyms but I'm starting to see results even though I go a grand one time a week. I missed seeing my trainer dude last week so I was glad to go this week and I was able to push myself a little bit further than I had in the past. Although I'm convinced my trainer is evil for making me to all those insane ab exercises.

My mood the past couple days has definitely been lighter but I'm not sure if this is attributed to the fact that I know I've got a method of escape from this company lined up or this little experiment; if it keeps up it'll be this experiment.

Happiness Experiment: Day 1

2006-11-28T09:56:00.000-05:00

So I decided to start this experiment where just before bed I recount 3(or more) of the things that made me happy during the day and analyze them. Figure out why they happened and what about them made me happy; essentially think them through. Today is day one of the experiment and I'm going to write out the three things.

#1 Reading my book at lunch.

Very simply put I went out for Thai food at lunch and read my book, I took the full hour and when I was done at the restaurant I sat on a park bench by the restaurant until I was done the chapter. It was nice not to think about work and the pressing things in my life. I'm reading Not Buying It:My Year Without Shopping and quite enjoying it so it was nice to take that break. Deciding to stop and finish the chapter before going anywhere was what really put it over the edge for me.

#2 Going for a second interview

I knew this one was going to make me happy because it was a move in the right direction when it comes to work but I didn't think it would make me quite as happy as it did. I got a verbal job offer and I should be starting first thing in the new year. This is an obvious happy moment but the best parts were that not only did I get the job offer but the description of the job sounds like it'll be challenging and rewarding which is something that I'm totally lacking.

#3 Getting home and telling my Fiance about the job.

Ok, this was a happy moment because my Fiance has been dealing with my crankiness and moodiness from work for a few months now. Knowing that I'm not going to be bitching and complaining about work and that I'll be happier for it is something I know she wants. Because of that seeing the look on her face was great.

#4 Helping with homework.

I know it was only supposted to be three items, but I got to help my fiance with her homework. It made me glad that I was actually able to help her with something that I haven't studied in 2 or 3 years(if not more). She was grateful and I was able to help her work through an assignment question when she was starting to get stressed by it.

Overall yesterday was a good day and I think going forward I'm going to have a bunch of these good days. I guess we'll see where this little experiment takes us.

Wow it's been a while.

2006-11-27T10:09:00.000-05:00

I think it has be close to two weeks since I last posted up here. Normally this would be the place I bitch about the things that I've got going on in my life here (usually work), so you'd think that everything is going well and I'm just in a pretty happy place. Lets get a reality check on that... I hate my job and I'm not the only one in this office that feels that way.

The good news is that I'm pretty close (at least I think so) to getting a new job. One that's on the subway line so I don't have to deal with all the people who got their drivers licenses in a fucking cereal box. But here's the best part, I'm going to be taking a very big pay cut to take this job (close to 30% of my salary) and I'm looking forward to it. Why? Well I know I'll be challenged, I know I'll have to work hard but I also know that I'll be appreciated and finally I know that I'll be a whole hell of a lot happier there. The choice is simple.

On the happiness front I read a very interesting article on Yahoo! today regarding happiness. It points to a very simple approach that people can do to make their lives happier. I was thinking about trying their recommendation out and documenting it for myself which lead me here to my little blog that has a few readers (fewer since I've fallen off the map).

So what's the exercise to be happier? Well it's pretty simple:

Every night, she was to think of three good things that happened that day and analyze why they occurred. That was supposed to increase her overall happiness.

That's pretty easy because during the course of the day you can easily find three good things that happened. My idea was to take this suggestion and actually write about it... document the things that made me happy during the day and figure out why and what they were and what caused them. I haven't been happy with work for a while so the things I choose might be simple but I've always believed there is a beauty in simplicity.

The Upcoming Weekend

2006-11-10T15:58:00.000-05:00

I have to say the past couple weekends have been pretty cool, had friends over last weekend (something we don't do very often) and this weekend we're heading out to check out a resort for as a possible location for a wedding. Finding a spot for a wedding seems to be more of a challenge than I could have ever imagined. We found a resort that promptly couldn't confirm a date for us. It's not that we're asking for a specific date, oh no, we want a saturday in the summer. The fact that we've got a pretty small wedding and that we wanted a saturday meant this resort couldn't confirm a date.

Why couldn't they confirm a date for us?

Well the couldn't confirm a date because all of their corporate clients haven't booked for the summer just yet. It's really frustrating when this happens but in all reality I can actually understand their point of view. For a resort that has conferences coming in saying no to a company that will be there for days at a time charging up money like it was going out of style versus a small wedding, the choice is pretty clear. It still sucks for us but that a fact of life that we're simply going to have to deal with.

The cool side is we get to check out more resorts now, trying the food in their restaurants, checking the rooms out and just getting out of the city for a weekend. There is one drawback to this: we still have to pay for this research. Granted we're getting great treatment and getting discounts on rooms and all sorts of fun things like that, but researching the wedding is something I would never have thought of as an expense for the wedding.

Hopefully this place is nice and we can end our search!

The Beauty of Hotspots

2006-11-06T18:02:00.000-05:00

You know maybe 3 or 4 years ago I really had no clue what a hotspot was; shit not many people did because wireless was only really kicking off. But today I'm sitting in a starbucks having my really overpriced coffee drink and I get to post for a nominal 15 cents... and I don't remember if that was per KB or per minute. I'll have a better idea when I get my bill but I couldn't resist the temptation of sitting chilling at a coffee shop typing out a post. As I sit here there are at least two other people with laptops.

The world has definitely changed since the computer became a necessity for the home.

A Lazy Hazy Sunday

2006-11-05T15:35:00.000-05:00

This is the first Sunday in a few weeks maybe a couple months where I've done absolutely jack shit all day long and all I have to do before the end of the day is go play a game of hockey which is always fun. I've dismissed the downtime thing in the past but now I revel in it. I don't know when this all changed but just chilling and relaxing is nice to do from time to time. Regardless of how or when this happened just taking a day to play video games or fuck around on the internet is a great way to detox a little before the work week starts all over again.

I think that ever since I decided that I really hate my job these Sundays are so much nicer though I inevitably find I start to dread the upcoming week that much more. The nice thing about these quite sundays (when they do happen) is that I can take a step back and just do some of the stuff I've been wanting to all week, like read or sketch... that's not a bad idea, maybe I'll go sketch for a bit.

I don't really have much to say other than I'm enjoying a day of not having to do anything that I don't want to. About the only way this day could be better is if I was on the boat and it was summer. I could just chill there maybe go for a swim, have a couple beers. But this is almost as nice.

Where am I?

2006-11-02T09:23:00.000-05:00

Actually this is a pretty valid question since i haven't been posting very much. I've been wrestling with myself, with my job, with my fucking retarded commute. I haven't been in the happiest of places in the last couple months. Over the past couple weeks I've slowly, very slowly started getting out of this hole I was in. I'm still struggling with myself but at least I've got an idea where some of the issues are/were.

I have to say I've actually missed posting on here and I think I'm going to have to start this up. Because I've got another blog that's happily keeping me writing on one topic I miss the mish-mash of stuff I posted up here. With that said who the fuck am I kidding if I'm going to say I'll post every day; but I am going to try posting more often.

the First smoke of the morning

2006-10-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

the first thing I do in the morning is typically have a shower, and if the shower is taken then I'll just chill checking my email until I can have a shower. Promptly after getting dressed I have a cup of coffee or tea and then I would head out for my morning smoke. This morning the routine changed a bit since my significant other quit smoking. I waited till I was in the car to have that smoke.

Let me tell you, I wake up and by the time I'm coherent I want to have that smoke. I know it's going to taste disgusting yet I still want to have my smoke. It tastes like absolute shit; there is nothing appealing about it and the aftertaste that it leaves in your mouth is vile. Sometimes I start the smoke only to want to butt it out after two drags but something makes me finish the fucking thing.

I'm addicted to smoking and I want to quit. I've started re-reading Allen Carr's The Easyway to Quit smoking.

I've read this book before and I was able to stop for two weeks until my stupid brain said... well if it was this easy then you can do it again. There is no more of that, it's time to quit this filthy habit. I'm going to smoke until I'm done the book and then that's it; no more. Non-smokers do not understand how soul sucking the process of smoking is. I can't wait to finally be rid of this compunction

A rare Sunday Post

2006-10-22T16:18:00.000-04:00

Over the past couple weeks I've done mainly three things:

Worked: I've been doing the working thing for over a decade now and I can't beleive how much I want to get out of this job and into the next one. I've bitched about it on this site for a few posts now but the feeling hasn't diminished. What has started to change over the past couple weeks is that the job is starting to improve a little. I'm not doing as much stupid grunt work but getting into doing what I got hired for. Unfortunately there is so much of the stuff that I'm set up for failure regardless. It makes wanting to get up to go to the office in the morning that much more pleasant and fun. And this is all before the 2+ hours of commuting that I'm doing each and every fucking day. Yes I'm interviewing but the process is slow and I'm not certain I'll get the job I'm trying for.

Drank: The next thing I've done over the past couple weeks is drank, today will be the first day in over two weeks that I haven't drunk something. The scary thing is that I'm sick of it but at the end of the work day about the only thing I can think of is sitting down and having a drink. I'm not impressed with this, in fact I'm quite embarrassed that I've turned to drinking to get me from one day to the next. This needs to stop and pronto.

Smoked: Finally since I can't drink at the office (though if I didn't have a 2 hour drive every day drinking on the job would be an option) I've been smoking more and more. I'm getting close to having about a smoke every hour that I'm at the office. This too is something that I'm not very proud of.

So what have I learnt from the past two weeks? Well very simply I need to get some of my shit together because I can already see that the slope I'm on is slippery. The smoking will stop soon; starting tomorrow if at all possible.

The drinking will be cut down significantly. I'm sick of drinking that much. And work... well there's not much I can do about that one other than try getting the fuck out of there.

Indiana Jones 4

2006-10-20T16:36:00.001-04:00

Look at that, it seems that they might actually film this movie. I’ve been hearing stuff like this for years but for some reason it always seems to be as 3rd party rumors and not from Mr. Indiana Jones himself. I’ve wanted to see this movie ever since the last one came out. I know they haven’t really been talking seriously about this movie until recently but imagine how awesome it would be to see Indy cracking that whip of his?

Now that I think about it I’ve missed going to the movies as much as I used to. I just have this mental issue with paying $15 to go see a movie at the theatre and that’s not including drinks or popcorn which cost more than the bloody movie. But there’s a few movies in the threatre that I wouldn’t mind seeing like Open Season and the Guardian; not to mention Babel which should be coming soon.

As for an update on me; I got some not 100% favorable news about the job I was interviewing for. They haven’t ruled me out but they’re looking for more candidates. This is really fucking frustrating but not much I can do about it right now. Just hope and wait and go drinking tonight and continue to pickle my poor liver.

The Tuesday Blog!

2006-10-10T11:23:00.000-04:00

It seems that I'm posting up on tuesdays lately. I had an interview this morning for a job and I think it went well. Here's hoping I can get the fuck out of the current job, things are slowly going downhill and I don't see them getting better anytime soon only possibly worse.

The worst part of having a job like this is that for all the things that are wrong with it's nothing in comparison to the complete lack of confidence it's causing in me and the soul crushing thats occuring within me. I would much rather be broke and looking for work than stay here. But alas I have more than just myself to consider in my life, mortages need to be paid and weddings need to be saved up for. The end result is that I can't just quite even though I really want to. I've just started drinking too much to cope and I don't like that.

In other news: Thanksgiving was good, lots and lots of turkey. 2 dinners and left overs! Hope all of you had a great thanksgiving.

Interviews

2006-10-03T15:56:00.000-04:00

Things have been a bit rocky at work and needless to say I haven't felt challenged nor given any direction. I feel like I've been pushed too and fro for no really good reason. On top of this I don't get the impression from management that there is any solid direction. The moral sucks and mine is right down there in the shitters.

So what does this mean?

Well it means that it's time to start looking around for a potential replacement job. I interviewed last week and I'm waiting to hear back about a possible second interview. In the mean time I have one interview tomorrow with a recruiting company (screening interview) and maybe another one later this week. Where were all of these people when I was looking for a job in the spring?

Needless to say things might be changing again for me but this time I'm going to make sure I can take the subway instead of doing a 1+ hour drive.

I'm Alive

2006-10-03T07:22:00.000-04:00

I find it rather ironic that the last time I posted was about the death of Bee's blog and then I go and stop writing for a couple weeks. But I haven't decided to stop blogging or anything of the sort. Things for me have been super crazy busy of late and I simply didn't have the energy nor the will to write anything. Work officially became stupid and it was demanded of me that I work 12 hour shifts and do demening work. I won't go into details, mostly because I'd end up going off on a rant.

With that said things have somewhat improved at the cess pool and I'm no longer expected to work 12 hour days (at least for now). My mood has definitely improved from the dark pit that it was in and I wanted to write a quick post before heading out this morning that I am in fact alive and well and I think I'll be able to get back to posting and reading blogs again.

Death of a Blog

2006-09-19T15:58:00.000-04:00

No not this one, I'm still going to keep it going but one of my regular reads has decided to call it a day. I don't know the reason, but Captain Bee, I wish you all the best! Hopefully you'll be back writing in no time.

When someone decides to call it a day, its a sad thing. Especially if the blog is fun and entertaining even if bitingly truthful at times.

Do you do the things you say you're going to?

2006-09-19T13:39:00.000-04:00

When I received the package from my last company part of that was some services with an outplacement firm, I only took advantage of a few of their services, but I did take an assessment. This assessment essentially told me a lot of things that I already knew and to keep an eye out for potential problem situations with excessive bureaucracy and detail and I’ve been keeping that in mind ever since. One of the things that this assessment did was recommend a couple books to read.

Last Wednesday I picked up one of these books, First Things First, by Stephen Covey. I didn’t set the book aside like I would normally do but I started reading it. I’m still slowly plodding through it, reading during my lunch time when I get a chance. I’ve found the book interesting in that it makes you focus on the important things in life, the principles that surround our lives. I haven’t made any drastic changes as a result of the book but I have started thinking about it (it’s a start).

I did read an interesting section about improving your self integrity by making promises to yourself and actually keeping them. I’ve always found that I make promises or say I’m going to do something only to get distracted and find some reason to not complete it. I’ve always been somewhat conscious of this but it hasn’t really ever come up and I’ve always written it off as if it’s something important I’ll apply myself. While I’m certain that’s true the book suggested building up your self integrity by making small promises to yourself and then actually following through. For the next couple weeks I’m going to try this and see if I can notice any results, hopefully I will but even if I don’t this will be an interesting exercise. Small promises, daily, weekly, things that are achievable.

Tonight I’m going to clean the cat litter, before going to sleep I will empty out the stinky pile of cat shit and replace it with clean litter. Simple? Yes. But I want to start small and accomplish the things I say I’m going to do without falling back to procrastination for no good reason.

One of those days!

2006-09-18T13:29:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in a few days, mostly because I've been busy and didn't have anything really all that relevant to write about. I've been trying to keep work at work and everything else outside of that. I played my first game of the new hockey season last night and we won though barely. I felt like I played like absolute shit but I guess it wasn't that bad since a few people did comment that I played ok/well. Regardless of that I ended up rather tired this morning which is never a fun way to wake up. But I did.

Since then I've just managed to become more and more frustrated by work; there is so much politiking here that it's just down right distracting. I'm asked to look into something but I'm getting blocked and redirected by another staff member who is one of the people who asked me to look into this. Seriously, if you ask me to do something then leave me the fuck alone to do it!

*sigh* I guess I'm just frustrated because of the stupidty of a lot of things I've seen around here. I'm almost tempted to start looking for another job or at the very least start prepping for a departure in the not too distant future (say 6 months or so). I don't know... I just don't know. I do know that this frustration isn't a happy thing and it's stressful... when it really shouldn't be stressful at all.

A couple busy days!

2006-09-13T10:38:00.001-04:00

I’ve just been so busy lately that I haven’t had a chance to post; (and I haven’t had too much to say on top of that).The weekend was nice and quiet; went up to the boat and nearly froze my ass off but it was nice to just chill. Every time I got up there I feel much more relaxed than if I were to chill in the city.

After work on Monday I had my first session with the Nutritionist and it was pretty neat. He started off by saying he’ll explain why he’s suggesting something or other and educate me on it. The only thing I really noticed was that he kind of slammed his co-workers for not educating clients. The couple things that he suggested were mostly common sense and things I kind of already knew. He suggested having the biggest meal in the morning and to break up my meals into more smaller meals. He also suggested reducing the amount of carbs taken in for the first part of the meal plan. What I did like is he didn’t come up with something and say you have to do this : blah. What he did is he suggested cutting back on the carbs slowly by maybe reducing the amount taken at dinner by maybe 1/3; this is reasonable and something that I can accomplish rather than removing them altogether.

Other than that the only help I’ve got with all my projects resigned yesterday which is going to mean that my life is going to get a bit more hellish over the next couple months with 4 pretty major projects starting up. *sigh* not much I can do about this right now but I might ask for an actual admin assistant to get through all the manual stuff.

My Brain is Melting

2006-09-08T15:42:00.001-04:00

I think I’ve had a long day, nothing exceptional has happened other than I’ve been busy. But the reason that I think that it must be a long day is because I just tried using my cell phone as a mouse.

It’ll be nice to get to the boat later tonight and spend at least part of the weekend away from the city and all the craziness that is work and life right now. The really funny thing is that I just got back from vacation and things shouldn’t be quite this crazy just yet. But the problem is that I’ve got enough work to keep 2-3 people nice and busy full time. I think I’m just going to have to suck it up and get things in order then start scaling back and bitching about needing staff.

Only an hour left!! Have a great weekend everyone… make sure to give your livers a break at some point on Sunday (remember you liver is your friend)

Gots me a Gym Membership

2006-09-07T09:08:00.001-04:00

So on Monday we went and got ourselves a gym membership at a pretty swanky type of gym. In Toronto there’s a few chains going from the ratty ass to the oh, my god I can’t believe people pay that to work out variety. The one we signed up to is somewhere in the middle. They have a shitload of machines, tvs set up all over the place and we get discounts from work; so all is good in the land of needing to get into shape.

But this place is a bit different; they make you take an assessment before you get your membership card. I kind of like this it let me know that I’m nothing more than a little girly man to quote the Arnold. Well not really my cardio is above average, but my core, ab, and back muscles are in dire need of serious attention.

So when I was talking to them I knew they would suggest a trainer and I was down with that and I was even thinking about doing it. And suggest they did but instead of getting me all working out and shit they suggested I work with a specific person to get my hockey going better which is something I mentioned. I like the fact that they’ve got trainers that will help you specialize in something. On top of that they don’t just offer the personal trainer…it comes with sessions from a nutritionist. That’s pretty cool too. For as much as I hate gyms I think I might be able to get myself going into this one.

Now what time for that work thing… must get caught up on work!

Back in Reality

2006-09-05T15:50:00.001-04:00

Alas the vacation is over and I’m back doing the whole work thing and I wish I was still up north just chilling and enjoying not being in the city. But the bills and mortgage won’t pay for itself. The vacation was a blast! We did a whole lot of nothing for 10 days which was awesome. Some sailing was had (well motor-sailing for the time being) and drinking became a daily activity (we spent more on booze than food).

So incase you’re all curious… I have decided to keep this little site up and running and rumbling with some of my musings. I debated taking it down because I was getting the feeling that I was forcing myself to put posts up. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I don’t feel like posting on any given day I’m not going to force it. Lately I’ve had more than enough to say so it shouldn’t be a problem…. I want to post when I have something to say rather than keep giving update after update after update when I don’t have something to say.

Definitely more chilled out after the vacation. We did sign up for a gym membership yesterday so the assessment part comes tomorrow and I’m a bit on the curious side what they’ll have to say; smoking and drinking all vacation must have done wonders for the health.

Ok I need to get back to the work thing.

Vacation Time!

2006-08-25T14:15:00.001-04:00

Hey folks, its that time of the year for me, no not bath time, but it’s time to take some time off and chill and relax away from work. It’s vacation time!!! I fully intend to distance myself from anything electronic and related to computers for a whole week and a bit. I’m sure I’ll be back just after the Labour Day long weekend.

I’ve already started coming up with some ideas about what I’ll do with this blog and if I’ll continue bloging as much or more and all the fuzzy stuff I was mentioning earlier. So have yourselves a great long weekend and I’ll be sure to have a few drinks for all of you out there!!!

Ahh Sleep!

2006-08-25T07:21:00.000-04:00

Last night after a couple pitchers and some wine I slept mostly like a baby. This is exciting since all week I couldn't do the sleep thing for the life of me. I only woke up once with my bladder screaming at me to empty it... I promptly ignored it and went back to sleep since it was almost 6 and I wake up at 6:30. I think my body knows that starting at 5ish today It's vacation time for 10 days!!

Ok time to go sit in traffic for a while; a longer post will come later!

Another Funny

2006-08-24T19:04:00.000-04:00

A woman comes home and tells her husband, "Remember those headaches I've been having all these years? Well, they're gone."

"No more headaches?" the husband asks, "What happened?"

His wife replies, "Margie referred me to a hypnotist. He told me to stand in front of a mirror, stare at myself and repeat .. I do not have a headache, I do not have a headache, I do not have a headache." "It worked, the headaches are all gone!"

The husband replies, "Well, that is wonderful."

His wife then says, "You know, you haven't been exactly a ball of fire in the bedroom these last few years. Why don't you go see the hypnotist and see if he can do anything for that?" The husband agrees to try it.

Following his appointment, the husband comes home, rips off his clothes, picks up his wife and carries her into the bedroom. He puts her on the bed and says, "Don't move, I'll be right back."

He goes into the bathroom and comes back a few minutes later, jumps into bed and makes passionate love to his wife like never before.

His wife says, "Boy, that was wonderful!"

The husband says, "Don't move! I will be right back." He goes back into the bathroom, comes back and round two was even better than the first time. The wife sits up and her head is spinning.

Her husband again says, "Don't move, I'll be right back." With that, he goes back in the bathroom.

This time, his wife quietly follows him and there, in the bathroom, she sees him standing at the mirror and saying, "She's not my wife. She's not my wife. She's not my wife!"

His funeral services will be held on Monday.

Soo Tired.

2006-08-24T08:32:00.001-04:00

So what’s the definition of insomnia?

Insomnia: prolonged and usually abnormal inability to obtain adequate sleep

I don’t think I’ve got it but let me tell you I’ve been waking up 3-4 times a night for the past 4 nights and it’s starting to drive me bonkers. I’m still getting my sleep but it gets interrupted in the middle of the night I look over at the clock and low and behold it reads 3:22 AGAIN. I think I’ve woken up around 2-3 every night this week.

I’ve never needed an excessive amount of sleep and I can happily function on about 5 or 6 hours of sleep on any given night. But I do like my sleep to be uninterrupted. The worst thing about this is that I’ve got absolutely no clue why this is happening. Hopefully it’ll pass today or tomorrow and I’ll be done with it finally.

I guess I should quit the bitching and get cracking on the work stuff.

Long Day at the Office

2006-08-23T17:48:00.001-04:00

Yes I am taking a break from work to write a post! OOOH Bad employee.

Ok there’s a reason for this, tonight there’s a meet and greet with the president and he’s taking us out for drinks and some food. This is a good enough reason to stick around especially since I’ve worked here for 3 months and never met the man until today. But with that said being at the office from 8 until 7 is a really bloody long day and I’ve gotten to that point where I simply need a break… not a smoke break type of break but a real one, like lunch break.

It makes me wonder how some people stick around the office for hours on end plugging away at their work. Are they that engrossed in what they’re doing that they can do this? Or are they simply staying there because they don’t want to be somewhere else? I know the keeners are truly doing stuff but are they still all that effective after an 11 hour day? I’d say they’re not, conventional wisdom says that in a good day most people will work about 5-6 hours of actual working time for an 8 hour day. And lets not forget that skipping lunch to put more time in means that for the 5 hours you do from lunch on by skipping lunch translates to being less productive than if you were to take your lunch and work only 4 hours.

Organizational behaviour and the metrics of productivity have always interested me and it’s always interesting to see it in practice.

So note to yourself, don’t skip lunch unless there is a really good reason for it and when you do take your lunch break; take the hour they give you. There’s a reason for it and if you’re really keen on being productive you’ll notice that you’ll get more done.

Morning Funny!

2006-08-23T10:32:00.000-04:00

A man walks into a bar with a pet alligator by his side.
He puts the alligator up on the bar. He turns to the astonished patrons.

"I'll make you a deal. I'll open this alligator's mouth and place my manhood inside. Then the gator will close his mouth for one minute. "Then he'll open his mouth and I'll remove my tackle unscathed.

In return for witnessing this spectacle, each of you will buy me a drink.". The crowd murmured their approval.

The man stood up on the bar, dropped his trousers, and placed his 'brick and walls' in the alligator's open mouth. The gator closed his mouth as the crowd gasped. After a minute, the man grabbed a beer bottle and smacked the alligator hard on the top of its head. The gator opened his mouth and the man removed his equipment unscathed as promised.

The crowd cheered, and the first of his free drinks were delivered.

The man stood up again and made another offer. "I'll pay anyone $500 who's willing to give it a try."

A hush fell over the crowd. After a while, a hand went up in the back of the bar. A Blonde woman timidly spoke up......... "I'll try It! Just don't hit me so hard with the beer bottle.

Fewer Posts of Late

2006-08-22T16:16:00.000-04:00

Normally I like to take a few minutes during the day and post a quick blog entry. Lately this hasn’t been happening because I’ve become suddenly rather busy at work. I work as a project manager and I initially got hired to work on a singular large project; since the project has slowed down my number of projects has increased by a little bit… I’ve now got 12 projects to manage with more coming soon. Granted most of those projects are much smaller than the one I got hired to work on but they do take my time.

So why not post at home you ask?

Well the answer to this is I rarely feel like getting on the computer by the time I get home. First off there’s typically the necessary cleaning of the kitchen and cooking of dinner that takes up time and then there’s the more important reason, I don’t get to see my GF all day long and this time after work is about all we get to spend with each other during the week. I would much rather shoot the shit with her than sit in front of the computer playing a game or writing something. Unless of course I have something rather monumental to say (which doesn’t happen very often)

This has lead me to question (again) if I even want to keep this site up and running. Like last time I’ve come to the conclusion that I do want to keep the site up because I like writing on here for me even if most of the posts are inane and not horribly earth shattering. I haven’t had the burning desire to write as I did in the past, I post sometimes because I want a brief break from work… this isn’t a great reason to post.

So what am I going to do?

Well the answer to this is pretty simple… I’m going to post a couple times erratically when the urge or whim grabs me before my vacation (starting this Friday). During that vacation I’m going to ponder long and hard (probably with a few drinks in me) about what exactly I want to do, how I’m going to post and all that fun stuff. I do think I’m going to start posting more pics up but I’ve been really bad about this in the past so I wouldn’t hold my breath just yet.

Ok two posts in one day… I’m impressed with myself!

She Floats!

2006-08-22T15:59:00.001-04:00

So this weekend was a really tiring one in that we put the boat in the water. Remember the picture that I posted; now imagine that boat in the water with the mast up all happy as can be? Ok that’s literally what happened over the weekend. We managed to get her into the water with only a few minor problems such as I almost sank the car… too bad we don’t have a picture of me in a valiant attempt to drown the car.

Needless to say we managed to get the boat off her trailer and the car out of the water. I am starting to become convinced that I’ve got a two wheel drive instead of a 4x4 but this is a completely unrelated issue. We even went for a bit of a sail and a test of the motor. Both worked rather nicely with one small exception: the steering on the boat is sluggish at BEST. Needless to say on our vacation next week we’re going to end up doing what is called motor-sailing.

So what is motor sailing you ask? Well you put up one sail of the two that are typically on most sailboats and to help you along you turn the motor on. It’s a complete waste of gas in most cases but it definitely ensures that you get where you’re going in a decent amount of time.

TGIFF

2006-08-18T10:36:00.001-04:00

The day from hell ended yesterday when I managed to get to sleep. I can’t believe how much running around I had yesterday. But the trailer hitch is on the car and the parentals are back in the country and everything was taken care of.

Which means that today is now a Friday and that translates to more running around to get all the necessary items for getting the sailboat into the water and running. I can’t believe just how much work we’ve put into this thing so far and there’s so much more.

I’ll be happy to just chill this evening knowing that there is no such thing as waking up early to go to work tomorrow. I still need more feedback on if I should put a pic up or not otherwise I may have to flip a coin.

Can someone please turn that ringing in my head off!

2006-08-17T09:44:00.000-04:00

Good Morning Ladies and Germs; I am officially hung over this morning. Last night went out for some beers with my wedding party. Fun times were had but alas it also translated to smoking too much and not going to the gym. As of right now this week has been a crapshoot when it comes to being good to my poor body. Feeling like shit when you’re supposed to be pulling together project plans and charters for 12 projects really makes it challenging. Alas hindsight is 20-20 but I just don’t really care for this anymore; I think I’m getting either old or just bored of being a drunk (scary eh?)

The parentals are finally coming back from Europe so I’ll have my lunches back and I won’t need to feed the furry little fuckers anymore. The cats are doing well, the plants are mostly alive, and I didn’t get a chance to make a huge mess of the place. All bonus points! I do have to go get a trailer hitch put on the truck today so I’ll be able to put the boat in the water… and then it’s off to the airport to pick them up. Today is way too busy for being hung over; at least it’s somewhat passing.

Sarah has inspired me to consider posting some pics of myself up… I’m still debating it because as of right now I’m pretty anonymous. So what do all of you people think? Should I post a pic up?

Happy Hump Day

2006-08-16T09:25:00.000-04:00

Yep its that magical day of the work week, hump day, it has two benefits: 1st it’s the middle of the fucking week and you know that after today there is only one day of serious work (Thursday) and Friday which is more of a preparation for the weekend anyways. And the 2nd benefit its called hump day… what other excuse do you need to turn a day into an excuse to get laid?

Ok, I’ve been a bit busy at work the past couple days so I haven’t had much of a chance to post. The weekend was really tiring, but the boat is mostly ready to be put into the water. I’ve got a bunch of painting and varnishing of some wooden pieces that needs to be done before we get her on the water. But this is pretty cool that we might have the boat ready to go for our vacation later this month.

As for the grand experiment… this week it simply hasn’t been happening. But I think we will reset on Monday. But on a good note the smoking is much less, I haven’t been smoking during the day when I’m at the office and only a handful at home. I’m thinking that if I can keep this up I’ll get used to not having one during the day which will make it a bit easier cutting them outright.

Weekend is only 3.5 hours away

2006-08-11T13:34:00.000-04:00

I can’t remember the last time a shortened work week seemed so bloody long! But the week is over and some of that relaxing is due up for the weekend. Nothing horribly exciting but something none the less and that something is continuing to work on a little project that my GF and I have been working on. What is that project you ask?

Well the project is pretty simple it’s working on this getting it cleaned up and usable:

My dad gave me his old boat years ago when he stopped using it and well I couldn’t have really been bothered at the time. Sadly year after year I would say I was going to clean her up and put her in the water but that never transpired. A few weeks ago we went up and started to clean her up. This weekend the plan is to continue the long tiring process of cleaning the boat up and getting her ready to put in the water.

But why so late in the season you ask?

Mostly because I’ve been lazy and instead of starting at the beginning of the season we started towards the end; we’re thinking of using her for part of our vacation towards the end of august. Hopefully none of the concerns I have about getting her up and running are founded!

Wish us luck.

Too much apologizing.

2006-08-10T10:18:00.000-04:00

I just witnessed something that brought to mind a topic that I’ve wanted to write a post about for a little while and that is Canadians apologizing for pretty much everything! Now I understand that in general you need to apologize in standard situations as an act of courtesy. For example if you’re walking in a crowd and you accidentally bump into someone, naturally you apologize for your transgression. Canadians, from what I’ve noticed like to apologize for almost anything that could potentially maybe be seen as ever so slightly offensive or negative.

But what I witnessed today was just mind boggling. On my way to the convenience store about 10 minutes ago I needed to walk out the revolving doors of the office. A man in a suit was walking in through the same door. I didn’t need to slow down or stop or anything of the sort I just continued to walk in the same straight line that I was intending to. About the only thing that I did was look at the man; that’s it. As he walked out of the revolving door just as I was about to enter he apologized.

Why the fuck would you apologize? What did you do that was so offensive that you needed to apologize? Did you fart in the fucking door?

Seriously people, we apologize a little bit too much. You don’t need to apologize to someone for almost maybe getting in their way but not quite close enough to make them move or change direction. Ok this rant is over and I’m not going to apologize for it, nor the swearing in it!

The simplicity of Youth?

2006-08-09T12:12:00.000-04:00

A thought has been circulating in my brain recently and that thought is how much easier my whole life was in the past. I was thinking about what made some of this simplicity so much less stressful on me overall. My life hasn’t gotten much more challenging though it does seem that way. So why was my life as a teenager and in my early twenties so much easier? Was it much simpler or was my outlook on it that much simpler? Well before I get into the list that I’ve been starting and looking at a strange thought hit me: What if some of the simplicity that I’m referring to is the reason some items are weighing on me right now?

I started working through a list of items that I’m referring to as being simpler but the list isn’t really 100% accurate because as I delve into what made that at a simplicity often it was me doing something not really knowing if I really enjoyed it or not. For example I used to go clubbing pretty much every Friday and Saturday; now if you were to ask me to do that I’d just look at you as if you’d sprouted a third eye. I stopped liking clubbing long before I actually stopped clubbing. I guess to some extent some of this was me doing something that was to some extent rebellious and young. When I think about a lot of those times, I often enjoyed myself when I was out with a couple people or by myself (for the record I used to go to Raves by myself).

I guess to some extent some of the simplicity that I’m looking at came from the ability to just do what I wanted and often this was playing video games or partaking in some sport like activity without the worry of needing to do this or that or caring about why or how I was doing some of these things. I managed to get into some very significant debt when I was in this simple state (in my early 20’s). When I think back to when I was a teen is when things were simpler because I only spent money when I had it.

The financial aspect of life often didn’t register as something to consider; because I didn’t consider it I simply spent money that I didn’t have. Over time I managed to collect debt and as I collected this debt it started to weigh more and more heavily on what I did and what I worried about. Over the past say 3-4 years my finances really drove what I did and didn’t do because I needed to pay my bills and struggle balancing my various visa bills against each other with the car debt with this that and the other. You get the picture, it’s a pretty common one when you look at people in their mid-late twenties like I am. Now that the rest of life has become stable and quite happy (hell I’m engaged and living with my fiancé and very happy) my finances should be helping me instead of hindering me. I’m not really stuck in a job I don’t like at the moment but I am stuck in a job, forced to drive 2+ hours commuting because I need to be able to pay my bills…pay my debts. If I didn’t have the debts my bills would simply not be an issue and we could plan and prep for our wedding far easier instead of thinking how much it would cost. The cottage that we were looking at earlier this summer, instead of being a memory could be something that we visit each weekend.

I started this line of thinking off by saying that my life when I was younger was much simpler, yes it was but there was no responsibility within it and I didn’t give two shits about how I spent my money. Over time this became part of the problem now that I think about it. So what to do about it? Well I think knowing that this is something that is going to continue to weigh me down I need to adjust my life to remove this as a problem… I simply need to win the lottery!

I believe that the key may actually be in simplification; start cooking extra dinner and taking it for lunch with me instead of spending 15-20$ on lunch. Taking a sandwich and just sitting somewhere reading and eating will provide the same break as my lunches have recently but they’ll save me 75-100$ per week which I can use to cut down the debt and maybe set some $ aside for savings just in case something happens and for the wedding.

So the next part of the grand experiment is to simplify my expenses cutting out the items that I simply don’t NEED as well as cutting back drastically on the drinking. We have some booze left over from the weekend but I don’t expect we’ll need to buy any this week if any next week. I’ve noticed the difference when not drinking or drinking sparingly.

Ok now it’s time to go feed the cats and eat something.

Back to work

2006-08-08T10:56:00.000-04:00

So I didn’t take much in the way of pictures this weekend and the couple that I did take were of clouds. I just wasn’t in much of a photographic mood. The whole weekend was pretty toned down by usual standards; no one was really interested in drinking or being entertaining. The weekend was nice and relaxing swimming and vegging out.

But I should have taken some pictures of the traffic that we were stuck in on the drive up. I haven’t been in traffic that bad in my whole life. A 5km stretch of road (if that) took about 5 hours to drive through. The road was closed off and apparently they were letting people through but from the parked state of the car for 30-40 minutes on end I don’t think it was happening. The best part was the fact that our friends left the city 3 hours behind us and managed to be only 45 minutes behind us by the time we go to the marina.

I should really get back to doing some of that work stuff before I have to feed the cats. I will see what pics I managed to get on the camera and see if there is anything worth posting up when I get home tonight.

Happy Friday Everyone!

2006-08-04T11:03:00.000-04:00

I’ve been a bit cranky this morning with a nice headache to help matters along but none of this matter because today is Friday! Not only is today Friday but today is also the first day of the long weekend! So by this evening I will be happily sipping on a beer deciding if I should change into my swim trunks before jumping off the dock or not.

On that note I’ve got to get a couple reports out before sneaking out of the office early. Have a great long weekend for those that have it and have a great weekend for those that don’t.

I’ll try posting some pics on Monday (yes this maybe a first)

The weekend is nigh!

2006-08-03T14:01:00.000-04:00

It’s Thursday finally, and by this time tomorrow I will be packing up to sneak out of the office! Yes although I’ve only been with this company for a few months the long weekend is coming and I NEED to get out of the city and fast. As far as I know the food should be arriving a the cottage about now and the booze will be procured tonight (and hopefully sampled to some extent).

The grand experiment that we’ve been partaking in will simply resume starting on the Monday. Why Monday you ask? Well there’s still a chance that there might be a few beverages imbibed during the day but there’s a nice long drive (especially if there’s traffic) back to the city to feed the cats and start getting prepped for the week. So starting on the Monday I think I’m going to try going all the way to Friday before having my next drink and the gym… ahh the gym that I have a hate-hate affair with will be visited at least a couple times before the next weekend comes around.

So is 2 cases (24s) of beer plus 12 Strongbow ciders a bit much for 2 people? I’m thinking that this should be enough with some Baileys for the coffee in the mornings. Is this enough? or should I take up a spare 26er just in case?

Hump Day Update

2006-08-02T08:53:00.000-04:00

It’s been quiet at the office the past couple days, both because people are on vacation and because the amount of work is a bit lower than it’s been the past couple months. Now normally this would be a good thing to get all caught up. But I’m just hoping that this isn’t a lengthier trend. But in the mean time this week has been a nice quiet one so far and I’m looking forward to the long weekend coming up to chill at my friends cottage and relax.

For those of you that don’t know we in Ontario are lucky in that we’ve got a holiday weekend in August. I’m not sure how much of Canada has this weekend off but I’m certain Ontario does. The holiday goes by one of two names: Civic Holiday or Lord Simcoe day and regardless of what you call it, it’s a great excuse to go party it up at the cottage catching some rays drinking some beers.

And on that note, the grand experiment is continuing, we’re at day 3 of not drinking and feeling a whole hell of a lot better. The long weekend is pretty much off limits but I think we’ll continue this after the long weekend. It’s amazing how a relatively minor change can make you feel so much better. To top everything off smoking is going out the window on the Tuesday after the long weekend. It’s the day I had planned many moons ago and I’m going to stick to it. I’m getting sick of the smoking and I’m quite looking forward to Tuesday.

Since it’s nice and quiet for me I’ll see if I can post about the boat project later today (unfortunately there won’t be any pics that I took since this laptop doesn’t have a CD drive).

Back to Normal

2006-07-31T11:10:00.000-04:00

Well things are mostly back to normal; at least for me. Than you for all the folks that posted their condolences, actually most of the people that learnt the news were really supportive which is nice. I get to take care of my parent’s plants and cats for the next few weeks while they fly over to Europe and take care of all the necessary things as well as attend the funeral. The good thing is that I don’t loose the weekend at the cottage for the long weekend as a result of this. I really need to get away from things and just chill for a couple days.

But in the mean time I said things are back to normal so the grand experiment resumes today and will continue until Friday were the cottage weekend takes priority. The good news is that both my GF and I felt a lot better not drinking for a few days, so much so that I’m quite tempted to take a longer break including weekends! I’m curious just how much of an impact this would make. On the working out front I’ve gotten to the point where I actually want to work out and I’m going to try getting myself to the gym before driving the parental units to the airport later this evening. This is a rather drastic change on my part; I used to hate going to the gym with such a passion that I never thought I’d ever become a regular at our buildings gym.

I guess I should get back to doing the whole work thing.

Not a good day

2006-07-27T11:16:00.000-04:00

This morning started off pretty good; traffic was ok and just as I pulled into a nice parking spot at the officed my phone rang... this can't be good... my parents calling... this is bad. As it turns out my grandfather in Poland had a stroke overnight and passed away. This is definitely not going to be a good day.

So I'm at the office plugging away, getting my work done trying to concentrate on my work keeping it together. The no alcohol thing is out the window tonight.

I'll post in a day or two when I'm more coherent.

The Experiment: Day 3

2006-07-26T19:07:00.000-04:00

Well what can I say, work has been rather busy the past couple days but we've managed to keep the no drinking and going to the gym experiment going. I'm starting to feel a bit better and I get the impression that my body is starting to normalize. Kind of a strange sensation, lets see how I feel by the time friday rolls around? I'm hoping that this trend continues at least to some extent.

I've tried cutting back on the smoking but to be perfectly honest I've stuggled with it more than I would have liked. In my head I set the tuesday after the long weekend as the day I wanted to quit and every pseudo attempt in the interim has met with furstration and struggles. I think I'm going to try cutting back a bit and just stick to that date as the official end date and stick to it. With the attempts to quit smoking comes the mild sensation of hunger... BUT the whole not drinking thing has also made me hungry as hell but I've been attibuting it to the smoking. In reality I'm thinking it's somewhere between the two of them and it's partially showing just how much I was taking in in calories from drinking.

Finally the going to the gym part I've managed to keep up. Golfing on Sunday and the gym every day this week since. About 20-25 minutes of cardio with some ab work. Today was the hardest day yet and I wasn't able to get my customary 60 crunches in but I figured I've been hitting it pretty hard and there's no point overdoing it. I'm thinking thursday or friday might be a day off. I guess we'll see.

Ok I think it's time to find some roadkill... I mean food.

The Grand Experiment

2006-07-24T22:01:00.001-04:00

Well I mentioned earlier today that my GF and I were partaking in a rather grandiose experiment but I think I should preface the experiment first. Well for those that have been reading this site for a while you already know that I’ve been trying to take a bit better care of myself by trying to go to the gym regularly and cut back on the smoking. Part of the things that I’ve noticed is that I’ve been drinking way too much alcohol. So much so that there are times where I can go 5-10 days straight with a drink only to have a day off and the process starts again. Now I haven’t been drinking myself into silliness but I have been drinking at least one and typically a few.

I have come to the conclusion and my GF agrees that this is a bit much. I’m looking at this from a few points of view:

It’s really fucking expensive – Part of the reason that I noticed this is that I’ve been keeping tabs on my spending and I’ve noticed a great deal of money is oozing out of my account for alcohol.

It’s not healthy – You know I like having a few drinks but drinking as often as I do isn’t a good thing. I rarely drink myself to the point of being drunk but that doesn’t mean that the quantity I’ve been drinking is good for me. I’m convinced that I’d loose some weight if I did this.

So now onto the grand experiment! Since cutting alcohol out entirely would really be a challenge and one I’m not really interested in trying right now the experiment is thus: During the week try not to drink and only drink on the weekends. This means from Sunday through till end of working day Friday there will be no alcohol. Now before you dismiss this as a paltry thing realize that on any given week this could be as much as 4-5 bottles of wine. Typically a bit less but it could also be more.

The purpose of this little experiment is to see how we feel. Will this help us in going to the gym? Will this help in cutting back and removing the smoking entirely? Will this help me loose some weight? I’ve written this experiment mostly in terms of me since my GF doesn’t drink nearly as much but she’s interested in trying the experiment as well (which will make it easier for me too!) We’ll see in a few weeks (and the upcoming long weekend is off limits! There will be mucho booze that weekend).

And to give credit where it’s due this experiment is partially as a result of posts from one of my favorite blogs, Captain Bee, he’s trying 30 days without booze if I remember correctly.

Why Monday?

2006-07-24T11:09:00.000-04:00

Well it’s that rather ugly day of the week, yes it’s Monday. I woke up this morning feeling like shit and there’s no reason for it… well not really. I went golfing yesterday and although I didn’t exert myself too much I did end up sore and I’m feeling that now. The headache and fatigue are something that I wasn’t expecting; let alone the grumpy stomach. All this combined this morning to me feeling just smashing and chomping at the bit to get into the office!

But I’ve been here for 2.5 hours already and I’ve decided that I’m taking a bit of a break and write a post. Yes I’m being a bad employee today but they should be happy I’m in at all! Then again I would have gone for at least one smoke break by now so it’s not that bad a thing to sit here writing a quick post.

The other item that I was working on this weekend but haven’t really done too much with yet is putting in a new template for this blog. I’ve found one that I liked and now I’ve just got to play with it and make sure it works and behaves the way I want it to. If all goes well I’ll have me a new look and feel for the site sometime this week… and tweaking a template isn’t something that can be done while taking a theoretical ‘smoke’ break at the office.

Ok… I’ll post later this afternoon about the grand experiment that my GF and I are trying right now. Should be interesting to see if it’ll work out… Now back to the drudgery.

To Blog or not to Blog

2006-07-21T09:40:00.000-04:00

I haven’t blogged the past couple days for a reason and alas it’s nothing dramatic or anything of the sort. I was debating with myself if I wanted to continue blogging on this site with regularity and I guess I’ve come to a conclusion of sorts. I think I’m going to continue to keep this site going but I did want to share the reasons why I was debating keeping the site:

There is no real rhyme or reason to the site.
It’s not specific in any way shape or form. Sometimes I blog about the weather (mostly during hurricane season), sometimes what’s going on with me and my life, sometimes news but there is rarely anything concrete.

Would I read this site?
You know honestly sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes the answer is no. I don’t have a fascinating life and I’m not doing the bar scene or picking women up so the typical fodder will be my struggles through boredom at work or my struggles with quitting smoking or going to the gym. At times I’ve got to say that there simply isn’t anything fascinating to read… for that I apologize to my few regular readers.

Do I have the time to really keep this up?
Well the answer to this one is yes because your average post from me takes maybe 15 minutes. They’re rarely pretty and there’s no pictures or rarely pictures. Could I spend some more time on it? Yeah probably without impacting my regular daily schedule or anything like that.

So I am going to keep the site up and running but I did want to change a few things though I’m not sure that I’ll ever actually get to them. I want to keep the posts regular so if I don’t have anything to say about my life I’ll at least try to come up with a topic that I’m interested about. I’ve also been debating putting more pics up, but instead of images I find around the web I was actually thinking about putting my pics up (not necessarily including me).

I guess the net result is that I like writing on this blog even if I acknowledge that I don’t have huge traffic numbers nor am I likely to get them. I just like writing the posts and occasionally getting feedback from people that read them.

Oh So Tired

2006-07-17T09:34:00.000-04:00

This is the first weekend in a very long while where I can remember not being drunk or mostly drunk 2 out of the 3 days. Though I did drink a bit on the Friday it wasn’t a lot and that’s pretty much it. As sad as it is I’m partially attributing this to the fact that I’ve got a nice headache going and I’m tired. Withdrawal is something that I’m experienced with to some extent; granted quitting smoking once and quitting caffeine a few times isn’t a great depth of experience, it is something and what I’m feeling right now feels like a withdrawal headache.

To top all of this off there is the lack of sleep! Saturday I didn’t get to sleep till 5 am, driving back from Muskoka will do that to a person. But what amazed me was the fact that I couldn’t fall asleep last night for the life of me! Lights went off at 11 and at 1 I was still awake. Now normally this wouldn’t be a big deal but getting up at 6 only gave me 5 hours of sleep… this is simply not acceptable.

On a good note I did get to the gym yesterday and I think I’ll be able to keep up the 4 times a week thing this week. I’ve also gotten up to 60 crunches… at least I did yesterday. If I was to think about 60 crunches when I first started going to the gym the thought alone would have meant pain, but I did it. Now let’s see if I can do it all week! And finally I managed to win 50$ playing poker on the weekend at the casino. I haven’t played in person for over a year but I managed to do well regardless.

Ok, back to the work thing.

An open letter to stupid people.

2006-07-14T13:42:00.000-04:00

Dear stupid people,

I understand that you have a limitation in your capacity to think and behave in our society, or any society for that matter, and you are going to impact the rest of us people who don’t qualify as stupid. I would ask that you please limit your impact on the rest of us that do not want to be affected by the fact that you do not know your ass from a hole in the ground.

For those of you who are stuck in limbo not aware that you are truly stupid I have a few guidelines for you:

You are stupid if you:

Decide that riding a bike, while having a smoke and talking on your cell phone in traffic is a good idea you qualify as being stupid.

Decide that putting make up on while driving 20 over the speed limit on a winding road again in traffic is a normal thing to do then again you qualify as stupid.

If you think that asking the same simple question 5 or 6 times is a good thing, it’s not unless the person answering is a stupid person as well, then you are a stupid person.

Write emails in a professional setting not only with typos and grammatical errors (these can happen to the best of us) but writing documents that barely adhere to anything resembling English, they are a stupid person.

I can come up with guidelines for you for days but I will simply stop there. If you think you may be one of these intellectually challenged folks; please stop these activities. Take a step back and follow the basic rules that have been set up for you. Drive while driving, talk when you’re on the phone, don’t try doing too many complex tasks at once because the moment you start doing that you not only become highly annoying but you also become a danger to those around you. You people are the reason the majority of car accidents happen. Ignorance is not an excuse!

Thank you and if you have managed to read this far and still feel that you may in fact be one of these stupid people you may just be acting stupid. I recommend you STOP IT and start acting normal so I don’t have to steer my life around you in order to keep myself alive.

Cheers,
Tank

2006-07-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday something interesting happened on the commercialization of space front; a commercial company sent a rocket into space with a prototype expandable module. What this expandable module actually is more of a component that can potentially be used for a space station component that is inflatable. The potential for this technology is great and NASA originally investigated it back when they were contemplating a Mars mission. Robert Bigelow’s company Bigelow Aerospace piggybacked on a modified cold war missile to get their satellite into orbit.

I know that this isn’t a huge deal in of itself but for those of you who have read my little blog from the beginning there are a few things that capture my interest and space is one of them. Now to further that a bit more the commercialization of space is something that fascinates me because it removes the restriction and over exuberance for safety and bureaucracy that mire the national space agencies. Another reason I really like the concept is because commercial enterprises entering a potential market will take risks to the point where people might die as a result but the goal of the team gets pushed further. I applaud these people and wish I had a fortune to be in the race with them.

Space programs don’t need billions of dollars per year to achieve their goals and the private ventures that are going forth will reinforce this point with every success that they have.

Bigelow Aerospace
Yahoo Article
Space.Com Article

A Tank Update

2006-07-11T11:36:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago I think I posted that I wanted to start taking better care of myself. The smoking this has been a bit harder than I thought though I am cutting back and I’ve got to set a firm date and actually stick to it. Quitting in itself isn’t that hard but the influence of those around you is sometimes far harder to do. The GF has been fairing far better than I have in that she will have one maybe two smokes in the evening not even thinking about having one during the day. I’m not there yet but I have started to cut back and started to question myself on why I want a smoke and if I enjoy it.

Here’s what I have come up with in conclusion:

I don’t enjoy smoking what so ever, half the time I’m using it as an excuse to procrastinate and the other half I simply grab a smoke out of habit.

I know that I don’t need smokes because when I wake up I’m not dying to have one hell half the time I don’t actually want one till I’m in the office.

Smoking is disgusting! The car reeks and I don’t smoke that much in the car.

I need to set a date and stick to it and just quit… I think I might just put out a smoke one day and be done with it, the sooner the better.

As for the remainder of taking care of myself, I have started going to the gym. On the weekend I went twice and I’m going again this evening. The goal is to go four times a week until I start to loose some of my girth. I wanted to use weight as a measure for how I’m doing but really seriously I don’t care all that much if I weigh 200 or 220 as long as I don’t have a belly. I was thinking that the best measure in this case will be how much I’m able to do in a workout. For example my workouts have consisted of jogging or the elliptical machine for 25 minutes followed by some weights and stretching finishing off with crunches. When I first set foot in the gym I was able to eek out 30 crunches to a sore stomach now I’m up to 50 with pain. When I’m able to do three sets of 20 instead of 5 sets of 10 I’ll be happy. I’m not trying to get myself all ripped and built, I don’t want nor need that. What I do want is to loose the extra paunch I’ve got and trim up. I want to feel better about myself because right now I don’t.

The last two items are eating and drinking. I have started being a bit more conscious about the whole eating bit but when I think about it although I don’t eat very well I also don’t eat that badly. I have 2-3 meals on an average day and they typically have some parts of most of the 4 main food groups. To top this off I’ve started taking a daily multi-vitamin again. Which leaves me with drinking; I’m trying to cut out a day or two of drinking each week (mostly because I was having some form of alcohol 6-7 times a week). This is a step in the right direction and to top this off I’ve started to cut back when I do drink so I don’t get stupidly drunk and hurt the next day.

This is a start, now I just have to keep it up and start improving on it and I’ll start feeling better about myself. I’ve always been a confident person but not necessarily happy with how I look and how I feel. Next up is to fix the problem of hemorrhaging money (Thanks to Tara for this term) and I’ve already kind of started looking at that. And for as much as I’m sure this is all incredibly fascinating blog reading it’s important to me.

A ramp? I don't need no stinking ramp.

2006-07-10T11:44:00.000-04:00

I couldn't help it, I have to post this because it so very clearly shows how guys think. Why build a ramp...that'll take too much time.

Feeling like ass!

2006-07-10T08:52:00.000-04:00

You know I’m sure that if I were to tell people that I’m hung over today the very first thing that they’re going to think is that I was out celebrating the Italian win yesterday but this is quite untrue. I did watch parts of the game though not all of it and I was rooting for the French not the Italians. The GF and I simply had a couple pitchers of barley soup topped off with a couple bottles of wine for no real good reason other than we wanted to. I doubt either one of us wanted to feel the way we do this morning… and let me tell you that is very foul right now. I’m sure it’ll pass but before it does I seriously feel like I need to go back to sleep and for those curious as to the type of hangover that I’m currently suffering it’s not the blistering headache but more of the stomach queasiness that I’m coping with at the moment.

OK I need to get some shit done for work but I still want to post about the soccer game and the celebrations…. So that’ll be later. Now I need some coffee.

Oh, since I’m hurting this morning a nice hangover remedy would be in order! What do all of you readers do when you’re deathly hung-over and need to recover?

Impending Weekend!

2006-07-07T13:59:00.000-04:00

What a wearying week, I know for most of us it was only a four day work week which is a good thing normally. But for me that meant that I really needed to get 5 days worth of work done in only 4. As its now mid afternoon on Friday I’m finally starting to wind down a little from the week and I’m really looking forward to the weekend (starting the moment I arrive at home – well almost).

The weather looks absolutely fucking amazing so that means PATIOS and backyards! With a nice beer-y beverage in hand playing some cards or just sitting around doing pretty much fuck all, but I’m also already planning the small little things around the house that I want to get done. I know I’m neurotic that way but when you’re busy with work you don’t get as much of a chance to do the necessary things to keep you alive and functioning.

Also the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel opens up today and there are plans set in place to go see it tomorrow. I know it’s a movie and having that as a highlight of the weekend is pretty tame in comparison to partying all night trying to pick up at a club or whatnot but I want to see this movie; it should be a lot of fun. Ok now I’m just thinking about having myself a nice cold one of these:

The New Job

2006-07-06T08:27:00.000-04:00

I haven’t posted much about the new job since I got it, partly because I wanted to keep my poor little blog and work somewhat separate and partly because there has been so many things happening in my life lately that I’ve simply had other things to blog about. But I have to say that I am really enjoying the new job, I haven’t wanted to succeed at something like this in a really long while. For example I’ve been working extra hours which is something that simply wouldn’t have happened at my last job to the point where I think I’m coming close to pushing 55-60 hours a week, and the best part is I’m enjoying a good chunk of it. Another thing I’ve started to do is to read books and information within the field of work which is another thing that I simply wouldn’t have done at the last place; I just didn’t care what happened there.

It’s a very nice feeling to actually enjoy getting up in the morning to go to the office, granted its going to take a little while to get used to the extra hours I’m working (even if I don’t need to) and find a nice happy medium where I get a nice chunk of work done without killing myself or taking enjoyment out of the rest of my life. But I believe that I’m off to a pretty good start.

Now in case some of you are curious I work as a project manager for a software development company. It’s much more in line with my past work experience and more in line with my interests than working at the publishing company. It’s much more laid back and easy going than the last place as well which is quite nice. So in other words, so far so good let’s hope it stays this way.

The only bad thing about this job is the fact that it’s far from where I live; the driving time going home is usually twice that of the drive in. Some days it’s just atrocious. This is definitely something that I’m going to have to get used, or find good times and routes for driving home. I’m blaming this on the stupid construction on the major highways in Toronto.

Ok back to doing that work thing.

Weekend Update

2006-07-05T08:24:00.000-04:00

I know that this really should have gone out yesterday but I was so bloody busy with work and then going to the gym after work and then dinner that when all was said and done I had just enough energy to watch canadian idol and read a bit before having a bout of insomnia as I was trying to fall asleep. Now how's that for a long sentence? Needless to say I didn't write yesterday so here is the update from the weekend.

We already know that I saw The Devil Wears Prada on friday; saturday was a bit of a quiet day which was kind of nice though it would have been cool to be able to shop since that's what I had in mind to do. BUT the stores were closed for a legitimate reason, celebrating your national holiday is always a good reason. So Sunday my GF and I had a BBQ at her parents place, now I know that you're thinking...ooh bbq with the family but no, the family was gone we hijacked their backyard and had 15 ppl over. So needless to say it was a fun affair to celebrate our engagement and eat a fuckload of food. Yes we still have leftovers in tupperware though that should be gone in a day or so.

And on monday we went and saw Superman and I've gotta say I was quite impressed with the movie, though I didn't really know what to expect other than an action flick. It's not as much an action flick as a few other things on top of a some action. It was well made and I liked the story which is saying something for a comic turned movie. Anyhow it was good.

Now you've had your 30 second update from me about my weekend it's time for me to chain myself to my desk for 8 hours and get some work done.

Cheers.

PS. Canadian Idol judges suck! I think Farley is the only one that's even remotely consistent with his comments and.... ugh forget it.

A movie review!

2006-07-01T11:54:00.000-04:00

I know that I don’t normally blog on the weekend but it’s time to live on the edge! Ok I think it’s pretty obvious that I don’t blog on the weekend mostly because I’m just chilling out and trying not to think too hard. I sit in front of a computer all day every day so the thought of doing that on the weekend is typically hit and miss. And if I am in front of the computer on the weekend then I’m quite likely playing poker (which I’ve already done today).

So what did I want to write about that was so important that I decided to write on a Saturday? Well first off I felt like writing and secondly I saw The Devil Wears Prada last night and I wanted to write a mini-review. I’ve read the book (which is pretty well written and funny) and I liked it so the movie was something I wanted to see and I really liked it. For me I normally don’t notice the acting in a movie unless it’s really good or something that’s completely out of character (Think Stallone in Cop Land) and in this particular case I took note of it in the main cast; not just one or two but the whole cast, which was pretty impressive. Meryl Streep plays the evil Miranda and does a bang up job; when I read the book I had a sense for the character and surprisingly the way Meryl played the character is pretty much how I envisioned it. As for Anne Hathaway, I’ve never seen her in anything quite like this and she did good, I have to say that her acting was subtle. I just liked it even if I’m not sold on her myself. Now for what I thought was the best acting in the movie and that would have been Mr. Stanley Tucci who just kicked ass; his acting was so dead on the money and in many cases deadpan that it was believable. I’d give you some examples but I don’t want to give away any parts of the movie, regardless he really did an amazing job.

When compared to the book the movie held pretty true and didn’t take away from it too much. Now with that said they did take some artistic license to get the movie together. There are whole sections missing but then again the rule of thumb for a movie script is 1 page per minute and the book was over 300 pages if memory serves. So it was inevitable that stuff got cut and the choices for cutting was good.

Ok I’m done writing now… movie was good, go see it.

Why I don't Blog sometimes

2006-06-30T06:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a perfect example of a day that comes up and makes me take a step back and go *ARG* Fuck it I'm going for a beer. You see nothing actually went bad or wrong... except I was stuck in traffic for over 2 hours on my way home. Now lets put this into context; when there is no traffic on my way to work its been as fast as 20 minutes and in regular traffic on my way home it's TYPICALLY about 45-60 minutes. So the drive time isn't perfect!

So what's the kicker?

There was absolutely no reason for my over two hour drive home. NONE! I was listening to the traffic on the news radio station and they didn't mention the route I was on as one with a problem. Which begs the question why the fuck was I in traffic for that long? Well surely it can't be the fact that there was construction; that's been going on for months and normally traffic keeps moving.

Therefore I'm chalking yesterday up to an anomally that I hope doesn't happen again because it's so frustrating it makes me forget ideas I had that I wanted to blog about. So there you have it... the wonderful hours I spent yesterday bonding (literally) with the seat of the car, can sometimes make me forget what I wanted to write about.

Look out world...

2006-06-28T08:55:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning feeling distinctly homicidal… now don’t take that literally but I woke up in a particularly foul mood and I’ve been trying ever since to get out of it and not to actually rip some peoples heads off. To top this off I also woke up really fucking tired. This I don’t get HOW THE FUCK CAN I BE TIRED AFTER SLEEPING 7 HOURS?

Can someone please explain this to me. Oh and I’m not talking just I’m a little tired; I’m talking the burning eyes and feeling like I’ve been awake for 48 hours feeling. Those still in Uni should know the feeling… think studying for an exam and what you feel like as you’re about to go in after cramming for 2 days solid. Mixed in with uber-grumpiness that’s my morning so far… And there’s no reason at all for any of this.

I shouldn’t be in a pissy mood (though I think it’s diminishing… I’m just waiting for a couple annoying people at work to bring it back to full) and I shouldn’t be tired. But both are truly prevalent this morning. *sigh* OK bitching session done; time to get some work done.

Engagement

2006-06-26T08:25:00.000-04:00

So this has been a pretty eventful weekend and for good reason. Friday evening I proposed to my girlfriend. This meant phone calls and then more phone calls and dinner with parental type units as well as friends and let’s not forget lots of drinking. Just because I’m sure some will be curious; I proposed in the park by our place. It was all very simple (kind of like me at times)… I got down on one knee and asked will you marry me. That’s it. Oh, she said yes.

In other words it was a pretty fucking amazing weekend. No plans for the wedding yet; but magazines have been purchased and looked at. The idea is a beach wedding.

Though I’m thinking a bit too much food and booze! I have to agree with some of my sentiments from last week it’s really time to start taking care of myself a bit better. On that note I smoked my last smoke yesterday evening. Now I can’t wait for the gunk to leave my system and so that I can stop hacking shit up and be able to breathe.

Time to do some work.

Couldn't resist not posting this (Humor)

2006-06-22T08:22:00.000-04:00

Heart Surgeon's Funeral

One of the city's top cardiac specialists died. At his funeral, his coffin was placed in front of a huge replica of a heart made of red roses.

When the pastor finished the sermon and everyone said their good-byes, the large heart opened up, the coffin rolled inside, and the heart closed again. It was a majestic tribute to the much loved cardiologist.

Suddenly, one of the mourners burst into a fit of laughter. Irritated by his insensitivity, the man sitting next to him asked, "Why are you laughing, Mister?"

"I was just thinking about my own funeral," the man replied. "I'm a gynecologist"...

So what’s wrong with MOI?

2006-06-21T08:31:00.000-04:00

Well naturally nothing other than the fact that I’m still smoking even though I know this is about the stupidest thing one can do. I’m still out of shape and no I’m not considering round to be a shape, finally I’m not taking any real care of myself.

Last night was the perfect example of this; we had a company outing as a going away for a pretty senior person. The company outing was an hour’s game of shinny… hockey for those that don’t know what shinny is. It was fucking brutal! I thought my lungs were going to rip through my rib cage to get to some oxygen.

Now before all of you blame the smoking on this it’s not just that it’s a combination of all three factors I mentioned. Very simply put during the winter hockey season I was smoking but I was in somewhat better shape… therefore it’s not just the smoking.

So what am I doing about it?

Well realizing something needs to be done is the first thing! (Done)

I was going to write quit smoking but let’s be serious here one has to be prepped and ready to quit or it’s going to be nothing more than an exercise in futility. So to that end I’ve been reading Allen Carr’s The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, I’ve read the book before and had a pretty easy time of quitting for two weeks. But this time it’s there will be no going back.

As for the taking better care of myself, there are a couple things I’m going to start with: first off it’s time to cut back on the drinking, I don’t need to stop it outright but I should take it down a notch or two. This will probably be harder than the quitting smoking mostly because I enjoy having a few drinks and I don’t enjoy smoking. The side benefit to this is I won’t feel stressed out when I look at the finances, nor will I have to deal with the detrimental effects of ‘the day after’. I think just cutting back 25-50% of what I drink now will still qualify me for a heavy drinker but I won’t suffer as much for it. The second thing I’m going to do is start eating a bit better, again this isn’t a complete turn about change but a modification, cut back the shit like fast foods and excessive soft drink intake. Again I think the simple stuff will make a bit of a difference and that’s a good start.

And we’ll think about the gym in the not too distant future… but for now it’s time to get some work done because I can continue writing this long post for days.

A follow up to the trip

2006-06-20T09:06:00.000-04:00

There was one thing that became pretty clear to me over the course of the weekend… I need to take better care of myself; I need to get my shit in order.

A pretty straightforward thought that is commingled with the desire to achieve more and to make myself a better person. I’m mostly happy with who I am and I’m definitely happy with almost all elements of my life. There are a few things that I am not happy with and those manifest themselves in how I treat my poor battered body. I smoke too much (still); I drink too much; and I don’t take care of my finances which leads to stress.

This morning I woke up feeling like shit and a bit depressed… yes I had some drinks last night while watching the game but this is less of a hangover and more of a feeling like ass. The smoking is going to have to go and pronto… I don’t like the way it makes me feel. I’ve said this before but I believe it’s time… I don’t enjoy it and never really have. Now it’s just making me feel like shit.

The drinking… I’ve made comment about this before as well but it’s never really been an issue… then again I can hold my booze pretty well and to top that off I don’t get hung over very often. But I was looking over the finances and I spend too much on booze… I’ve been drunk or had something to drink each night over the last week… and I don’t think this is an unusual thing… but it is; so this is going to have to go.

I need to make myself a better person, time to step up and fix the shit that’s wrong with me and the few things that I don’t like in my life. Time to stop living in complacency just because that’s what’s been comfortable and easy; this complacency will kill me if I don’t make some changes.

The trip made me realize some of this and waking up this morning feeling like ass for no good reason is just another piece of the puzzle. I’ve got no reason to feel down about myself and I’ve got no reason to feel like shit on a Tuesday morning yet I do. It’s time to fix this because I can’t see myself like this years from now… I don’t want to see myself like this years from now because it’s not something I wanted. Ever.

I guess it comes down to… I like who I am but I’m not certain I like where I am right now. Keep the good; simplify and get rid of the bad.

This past weekend!

2006-06-19T09:05:00.000-04:00

Well my GF and I decided that since we didn’t get the cottage that we wanted to get away for a vacation. Initially I was thinking of popping down to the florida keys for a 4 day weekend but we decided to stay in Ontario, closer to home and instead of 4 days 3 nights we did 5 days and 4 nights. We finally decided on going to the Delawana resort in Honey Harbour and I have to say it was really nice. It was a great deal of doing nothing at all. The resort was mostly inclusive since all our food was taken care of. The only thing they didn’t cover is the cost of booze, which kind of makes sense if you want to stay in business.

So the net result was 4 days of chilling, drinking wine (from the LCBO not the resort) and just having fun. It was pretty fucking relaxing and I think we both needed the weekend off from all the drama that was surrounding us in the past few weeks. I’m back at the office… yes writing a blog entry but to fuck with it; a 5 minute entry isn’t going to kill anyone and it lets me put thoughts to paper.

The only thing I have to say about the Delawana is that it’s expensive, all told for the 4 nights with food we paid just over 2 grand. But the place was pretty nice, pools, swimming areas, golf (which I just couldn’t be bothered to partake in… I was being lazy). I have to say that the money was worth it, the food was amazing and the staff accommodated pretty much every need we had.

I was disappointed by one thing and it had nothing to do with the resort; I was hoping to propose to my GF while up there but the ring wasn’t ready and for as much as I wanted to do it without the ring it wasn’t going to happen. Now I’ve got to come up with some creative way of proposing in and around the city. *sigh* now it’s going to be a challenge.

On a complete side note there was an older couple at the resort in the same little building as us and just as we were getting ready to head out yesterday morning they asked me to take their picture. I gladly took it and they told me that they were there for their 50th anniversary and that 50 years ago they were at the same resort for their honeymoon. This was very cool! If I was the resort I’d give them their stay for free.

Ok I should get back to doing that work thing. Update later.

States Visited - Cool little thing

2006-06-14T08:50:00.000-04:00

I was poking through some of the blogs that I like to read and I found a post on Southern Sweetheart's blog that was a map of all the states she's been to.

There was a link (there's always a link) to the source of the image. So I couldn't help myself and I had to complete it... and here's a map of all the states that I've visited(please note I don't live in the US :P)

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Yet another update… days late

2006-06-13T10:47:00.000-04:00

So things with me have been more than a little hectic of late; we tried to get the cottage and failed for stupid reasons. Then we started planning a short trip but alas I’m new at work and there’s a lot of changes so I can’t justify taking a whole week off. But I am taking some time off and for good reason (This update will come when we get back)

The time off after the last few weeks is super necessary; I feel the stress in my shoulders and my neck increasing each day. I don’t think it would be half as bad if it wasn’t for the stupid cottage drama that occurred. But that’s done now it’s time to start saving some money to either buy a bigger condo (or a house) next year or to buy a cottage (again next year). If all goes well things will start becoming a bit more normal for me; even though work will be incredibly busy for the next few months.

Speaking of work I haven’t given much of an update when it comes to this; I’m currently working with two women, one of them leaves on Thursday and the other a month later. That month can’t come soon enough unfortunately. She’s driving me up the wall. But all that aside I’m enjoying the work and it’s keeping me quite engaged (this is far better than the last place)

One last thing… the world cup is on and Poland has decided that getting to the tournament is enough of an accomplishment or so it seems considering they lost to Ecuador (they should have won the game). The nice thing is I’ve got an excuse to go to the sports bar during lunch to watch the game… and surprisingly I’m not having a beer with my lunch, mostly because it would just keep me there longer and be too expensive.

I guess I should get back to work for a bit… then I get to watch France play Switzerland for about an hour.

The Update - Finally

2006-06-08T09:25:00.000-04:00

So we lost the cottage…. the problem was in the financing and the fact that we couldn’t secure it quickly enough. We simply weren’t willing to take on a second mortgage on the property so that we had the 25% minimum down payment in order to not have to deal with the CMHC.

I’m sure this is a bit confusing but the whole story goes like this, we made the offer and it got accepted (after some jumping through hoops). We went to the bank and tried to get a mortgage, they approved the mortgage with one condition… I needed a letter from work that said I’m not on probation (specifically the CMHC needed the letter). The probationary period is as far as I understand it applicable in close to 95% of employee-employer relationships regardless of what is or isn’t said. My employer wasn’t willing to take the risk and I appreciate that. They were willing to provide supplementary letters saying that although it’s a policy it’s very rarely enforced.

The bank still said no, but by this point I had been told by a co-worker about second mortgages… let me tell you the woman we were dealing with at the bank started backpedaling as fast as possible. Why you ask? Mostly because when asked what options we have if I couldn’t that letter she said there was none, but in reality there were options. Needless to say my GF and I are rather peeved with this woman and trying to decide if we want to complain. So by yesterday evening we had the potential option of getting a second mortgage costing us an additional 3,000$ or just let it fall through.

We chose to let it fall through and go on vacation with the money that was supposed to be our down payment (or at least part of it)

A bit of humour for now

2006-06-07T13:28:00.000-04:00

One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his
buddy Norm.

Here's how it went:

"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the
slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at
the back that are killed first.

This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed
and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest
members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain
cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells.

But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way,
regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a
faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few
beers."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I'll post an update as to the shit that's been happening with the cottage financing later today.

A little humour to start the Monday

2006-06-05T08:10:00.000-04:00

Little Johnny is Back:

During class, a teacher trying to teach good manners, asks the students:

"Michael, if you were on a date, having supper with a nice young lady, how would you tell her that you have to go to the bathroom?"
"Just a minute, I have to go pee" Michael says.
"That would be rude and impolite" the teacher says.

"What about you Peter, how would you say it?"
"I am sorry, but I really need to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back."
"That's better, but it's still not very nice to say the word bathroom at the dinner table."

And you Little Johnny, are you able to use your intelligence for once and tell us your good manners?"
"I would say: 'Darling, may I please be excused for a moment? I have to shake hands with a very dear friend of mine, whom I hope you'll get to meet after supper."

The teacher fainted!!!!

Terrorists in Canada?

2006-06-03T13:03:00.000-04:00

Ok, Canada isn't perfect but it's not a bad place. People are generally treated fairly and we're not galavanting around the globe trying to ensure we have our noses in everything. We went to Afganistan and we're still there but other than that we have very little to do with Iraq and most of the people that I know up here think that it was a mistake for the US to invade Iraq and the whole situation is a mess that isn't likely to be resolved any time soon. Toronto is the biggest melting pot of culters that I've seen in my travels; granted I haven't been to that many place but I have been around a bit and this is truely a multicultural city. People accept each other and are typically accepting of each others as human beings.

So when I found out this morning that the RCMP arrested 17 people who were planning on carrying out terrorist bombings in Ontario I was a little shocked. This group of people were planning on killing people because they felt Muslims weren't being treated fairly around the globe. Guess what most Canadians would agree with you. Canada has remained fairly neutral when it comes to most issues dealing with Iraq, Iran and is trying to play a helpful role in Afganistan. How do you think the world will react if you try killing Canadians? Creating terror in canada and Toronto will draw the worlds attention and will likely make it more difficult for muslims around the globe not better. You're not going to call attention to mistreatment by killing people.

Canada maybe associated very closely with the United States and although our countries are very tightly linked from business to culture but they are still separate nations. Please don't blame us for the actions of others, we try to help where we can and not judge.

Sadly the article that I read on Yahoo about these arrests clearly indicated that many of the people in this group were canadians. What's wrong with you? What crimes have been commited against you that makes you want to destroy life and create terror in a country that has ensured you are educated, looked after from a well being stand point and safe? Argh I have never understood the need to commit attrocites and I'm glad that these people got caught I hope they rot in jail if they are found guilty.

TTC Strike

2006-06-02T09:42:00.000-04:00

A couple days ago I refrained from commenting on the TTC strike because I had a lot of updates to post up on the blog. But I have to say something about the strike that occurred, especially since the strike was highly annoying and illegal. I understand if you want to strike and you’re in a position to do so; but a wildcat strike that is illegal and severely inconveniences people who you want to support you isn’t the best approach to achieving this.

As far as I understand the strike was a result of the maintenance workers walking off the job because they weren’t happy with a shift change. Now I know there are other issues such as driver and operator safety that have been in the news lately but it wasn’t them who went on strike. Seriously if my boss came in and said that I have to work from 4 till 12 am or some other ungodly hours I would grumble, do it and look for something else if it really didn’t suit me. If your labor agreement says this is something that can’t happen then let the union deal with it through an arbitrator. A wildcat strike on one of the hottest days of the year is not a good way to get peoples attention. This point is drilled home by the fact that once the busses were up and running a driver was beaten with a broom handle. This wasn’t the drivers fault yet they’re the ones who are now placed in more danger because someone didn’t like what was happening in their job. Just stupid if you ask me.

So what would have been my solution? Assuming this had lasted more than the day that it did? Fire em, all striking employees are fired and allowed to apply for their old jobs. Reagan did it back in the 80s and it worked then, the TTC is an essential service. The gridlock that a service outage causes is more than a nuisance, it’s down right dangerous. If you think about it more people on the roads driving and walking which means there’s more of a chance that something absolutely asinine is going to happen. Tempers will flare and the net result is people are going to be more than just inconvenienced. But that’s a what if and thankfully that didn’t happen. What I did find amusing was the fact that the Union was posturing that their members that striked shouldn’t be punished or there will be action… if I skipped out of work for no real good reason I would expect at the very least to be chastised and to loose that day of pay. When you inconvenience 800,000 TTC riders there has to be some repercussions for your actions even if you’re trying to make a point; people have to realize that even when they aren’t the ones calling the shots they are still responsible for their actions.

So it looks like we got it!

2006-06-01T22:22:00.000-04:00

Well I don't like saying something before it's in writing but we got a verbal acceptance of our offer for the cottage! Between being insanely busy trying to get adjusted at work and dealing with the whole cottage deal I've not had much time for everything.

I didnt' think it would be quite this exciting to get a property. But it is, we're likely to take posession before the end of the month and then it'll be friday nights fighting through traffic to get to the cottage. I'm so stoked, and the best part is that every person that we show pictures to thinks we're getting a great deal.

Ok enough about the cottage for a sec. I got hired as a project manager a couple weeks ago... today my boss resigned. This kinda freaked me out until I realized that I'm actually replacing a consultant and they're not likely to get rid of me. But this really cought me a bit off guard. I'm liking the job and my days fly by at an alarming rate (hence no mid day updates) I wouldn't want to loose this position because of politics at the office.

Anyhow the beer is talking and the bed is calling...

Silence with a reason

2006-05-29T22:12:00.000-04:00

You know I wanted to blog about the stupidity that was the fucking retarded strike by the TTC but I'm going to refrain; not because I don't have something to say about it because I totally do, but because there's been a boat load of shit happening in my life.

So we all know about the new job I've got well it's going pretty damned well because I've been so busy justy trying to get caught up to what's going on that I haven't had time to blog at all. This is something that I've been truely enjoying, seriously coming from a job where I could scratch my balls till they were raw this is a challenge. This is challenging and it's keeping me on my toes all the time. I'm really enjoying that part; do I think this will remain the case for an indefinite period of time? No I'll get bored there too; but it'll take a year to a year and a half or even maybe two to get there. But at least I know this now so I'll be able to look for the warning signs and skeedadle before it gets ugly like the last fuck hole, I mean job.

Other than the job we went away for the long weekend and let me tell you seeing snow for the may 24 weekend even if it's wet snow is something that is just fundamentally wrong. So what did I do? well helped burn lots of wood and pounded back about two 24's of beer in about 3 days while a lot of people stayed way too sober for their own good and huddled in sleeping bags. Needless to say there was no swimming but it was fun regardless.

Which leads me to the conversation my GF and I were having on the drive back home and that conversation was about how much we'd like a cottage. So that evening I was looking at the postings online and guess what I found? A cottage on Georgean Bay that was in our price range (this should read to you - pretty much free) and I found one!

So last weekend we went right back up to the parry sound area and looked at the cottage. It's not perfect but it's pretty damned nice; the lady who's selling it is older and just wants to get rid of the place. So we put an official offer on the place today. This is way too fucking exciting since it'll mean I'll be up at the cottage working on my tan every weekend from about march till november and whenever the ice is solid enough to walk on. We're both pretty stoked about it. But as you can see a job that actually requies me to do stuff, a potential cottage and well the FUCKING traffic in toronto has kept me from recreational browsing and kept me away from my beloved blog. If I've got readers left that's what's been keeping my time lately. As a parting shot here's a pic from the cottage:

A bit of Humour

2006-05-24T08:17:00.000-04:00

Got this in an email this morning... made me chuckle so I couldn't resist, here it is:

Language Barrier

A Russian woman married an English gentleman and they lived happily ever
after in London. However, the poor lady was not very proficient in English, but
did manage to communicate with her Husband.

The real problem arose whenever she had to shop for groceries.

One day, she went to the butcher and wanted to buy Chicken legs.

She didn't know how to put forward her request, and in desperation, clucked
like a chicken And lifted up her skirt to show her thighs.

The butcher got the message, and gave her the Chicken legs.

The next Day, she needed to get chicken breasts.

Again, she didn't know how to say it, and so she clucked like a chicken and
unbuttoned her blouse to show the Butcher her breasts!

The butcher understood again, and gave her some chicken Breasts.

The 3rd day, the poor lady needed to buy sausages.

Unable to find a way to communicate this, she brought her husband to the store...

(Please scroll down)

What were you thinking?

Hellooooooo, her husband speaks English!

Now get back to work...

The interweb is on vacation... please try again

2006-05-24T07:03:00.000-04:00

I got home from the weekend two nights ago but I've been having some issues with the interweb thingy... which sucks but it seems to be back up and running again.

So the weekend it was, how shall I put it?, fucking cold... yes that works pretty well. But it was still good. We got to the cottage mid day friday and I drank away most of the weekend doing odd chores to help get the cottage up and running and to help keep it warm. The temperatures at night got pretty damned close to freezing so we were stuck inside most of the weekend (oh yeah it rained a fair bit too). Either way it was quite nice to get out of the city for a few days.

This is just a quickie post because I've gotta head out for the office. I'll try posting something later on today about the cottage I found that I'm thinking of buying.

Going to the Cottage

2006-05-19T07:25:00.000-04:00

Hey Boys and Girls,

I'm off... by the time most of you will read this I will be stuck in traffic on my way to the cottage. Yes I'm heading out for the long weekend (ours is a week early for the Americans reading this). I know I just started a new job and I'm already taking a day off but fuck it I warned them before I signed anything.

That warning... don't fuck with my weekend... and this is my weekend.

I do beleive the 7 cases of beer should keep me blissfully happy for the next 3-4 days. Be safe, drink lots and I'll post in a few days.

First Day Went Well

2006-05-18T06:32:00.000-04:00

Well I wasn't quite certain what to expect of yesterday other than I would be bombarded with infromation from all sides. And let me tell you that I was. I've got a stack of reading material that's probably close to 200 pages of reading and this is only the very top level of info on the project.

Other than this the two people I'm going to be working with are cool, one is quiet and collected and the other slightly crazy. They both know what they're doing so it should be pretty interesting. From the few other people that I met they all seem pretty nice and I think I'll fit in quite well.

BUT the drive home yesterday blew moldy chunks... even if had gone straight home it would have taken me close to an hour and a half (but I needed to stop my parents). It better not be this bad today. I'm so looking forward to the long weekend (which starts tomorrow for me... *grin*)

The first day!

2006-05-17T07:11:00.000-04:00

I'm all dressed and ready to go for my first day at the office! About fucking time I was back to doing the employed thing. Though I'm still doing the slightly apprehensive thing; then again it is the first day of a new job it makes sense. I want to make sure that I fit in well and that I can do the job well first day there. I'm sure I'll do fine but that doesn't alleviate the slight apprehension... think of it as the first day of going to school at a new school.

So I'll have to post a recount of what happened even if I'm thinking I won't do much more than get aquainted with the people I'm going to work with and start settling in. Thankfully the coffee machine is close by. I wonder just how bad the traffic is going to be?

Oh and the offical day for quitting smoking has been moved to Thursday (mostly because my GF and I wanted to quit at the same time and she's wasn't quite ready on Monday). This is cool because I was intending to quit the day before the long weekend anyways.

Ok... time to finish getting ready. Wish me luck people, I'm going in.