The One About Blueberry Sandwiches

My wife picked up some buns at Superstore. If I haven't said it before, here it is again: I hate Superstore.

Yeah, there's a big selection, but their produce is usually old and wilting and --much to my dismay-- the bakery doesn't seem to clean their pans between recipes.

Now, I like myself a good sandwich. Get some cheese and mayo in there. Load it up with several types of meat. Luncheon meat, turkey breast, lyoner sausage. Heck, even bologna is good in a 'sammidge' like that!

But to taste blueberries... Eeeeuuuccchhhh!!

See, the buns were baked on the same pan as, I don't know: blueberry muffins. It was disgusting. There's only two ways to eat blueberries in this Hoser's world: fresh or frozen. Baked is gross. Baked in a meat sandwich... *cringe* After spitting out the blueberry chunk, I looked at the bun and saw there were a couple blueberries stuck to the bottom.

So, I checked the bag and, sure enough, a couple other buns had blueberries in 'em too. So, I took them back. They wanted to give me more buns, but I asked for my money back instead. I'll get my buns elsewhere --without blueberries!!

[kind of reminded me of a breakfast at one restaurant. I opted for a simple cinnamon bun and they 'heated' it on the grill with the eggs & everything. When I got it, all I could taste was salt. I haven't had a cinnamon bun since.]

The One With The Weird Interview

I spent years going through interviews at the old office (From Hell!) and it had gotten to the point where I had the scenario questions memorized and I could rhyme off the correct answers pretty darn quick. I actually got chastized at one interview because I was answering every question correctly. I didn't even get the job.

Not sure if it was Tuesday or Wednesday that I received a phone call from one company wanting me to come into their Vancouver production office for an interview for a fairly lofty position. We made the appointment time and I pretty much shrugged it off thinking there's no way I'd be the one for the job.

I spent years going through interviews and being nervous each time too. This time was different. I asked questions up front (even asked the receptionist if she liked working there and how long she'd been with the company). I sat down in the office, faced by two people and prepared myself for a similar string of questions I was used to hearing for years prior.

It didn't happen. We talked movies. We talked comic books. We talked hockey. We talked about confidentiality outside of the office too and little bit about Excel (which I've used since the dawn of time). We joked about Star Wars (there's a couple velvet paintings in a neighboring office and they liked hearing my daughter's a big fan of their DVDs (they even gave me giftpackage with DVDs for both kids --can you say their birthday gifts are taken care of?). There was very little talk about work --and then I "impressed" them with my knowledge of the artists who'd done the work hanging on the wall. I'm so special.

So, on Friday, I could've cared less about this job. I didn't feel it was for me and was ready (& relaxed) for whatever came my way next. By the time the interview was done, I was ready to start right away. I didn't want to go home.

So, yesterday was a good day as I was quite excited. I'm supposed to find out on Monday whether or not I got it and suddenly I'm looking forward to that call.

Today, however, I felt differently and don't think I got the job. I'm not sad, even though it looked like a great job to have (even though I'd be away from home for at least 14 hours a day). I just think I'll hear something tomorrow and I'll be ready for the next interview with a different company. It's out of my hands.

But damn, it would've been fun.

The One About An Addiction

***geek alert!***

Yeah, this one is a little nerdy and probably something that no one thought could be that way, but trust me: it is!

I discovered over 10 years ago that I had a strange addiction. Where I was at the time, it wasn't strange or uncommon, because nearly everyone I talked to had the same addiction, though none of them would probably admit to it. It took me a while before I realized it was a problem (despite my best friend pointing it out to me).

Here's the weird part: I was... am... addicted to hockey cards.

See? Weird and geeky! Back in the early/mid-1990s, I worked at a sportcard shop and one Christmas season,I hit it really lucky. I bought a pack of hockey cards at the local 7-11 and inside was an autographed card for one of the most popular players on the local NHL team. I sold the card to a customer at the shop for $300. A few days later, I bought another single pack of cards and pulled yet another expensive card. I sold that one for $100. I had yet another card a few days later that sold for nearly $200. So, yeah, almost $600 in a few weeks right before Christmas. Everyone got nice gifts from that year!

But the addiction hit. Imagine spending a couple dollars, opening up the package and discovering something inside worth so much more than you anticipated! I ended up spending at least $100 a week on packs of hockey cards after that and every once in a while I'd hit it lucky, but with the amount of money I was spending, it wasn't the same "success." I was laid off in 1995, after a dismal Christmas season (no NHL hockey meant no collector's looking for the latest "hit" player). My addiction didn't stop immediately. In fact, it took a year before I finally realized it was a problem. I stopped for a while, but every once in a while I'd find myself picking up packs again and feeling the same rush. A friend of mine at the time also didn't help. He egged me on enough that I kept on buying. Being unemployed (but not necessarily broke as I still lived at home), I was also finding myself "feeling better" whenever I'd buy stuff. My friend loved this as he could use me to buy things and my addiction continued.

Usually every Christmas, the addiction hits again. McDonald's brings out their annual hockey card set (99-cents a pack for 3 cards, but you have to buy fries and/or a drink in order to buy 3 packs). I might pick up a special box from the local drug store. It'll have 5-12 packs of cards and I love to see what I can get for "special" cards. I never get anything good, but the rush is still there.

Last Christmas, I ordered a box of cards and I had opened all 36 packs when I realized it wasn't the box I ordered. It was another type from the same company (same series, but the type of card I was looking for wasn't available in these packs). The "special" cards I did get were virtually worthless. I sold a couple on eBay for a few dollars, but didn't get even 20% of the price I paid to buy the box.

When I went to the doctor's office this week, I stopped at a card shop on the way. I bought 5 packs of cards for $60. 2 packs were $25 and $18, respectively. There is a guarantee of a "special" card in each pack. It was true, I got one in each (actually 2 in one pack), but again looking on eBay I discovered the cards rarely sell (and when they do, it's for less than $5).

You'd think my disappointment in finding these cards so cheap would help to discourage my spending.

I really hope it does. I printed off a list of the cards and how little they sell for and hopefully that will counter any desire to buy more.

The One About HDLs and LDLs

I missed my annual checkup last year thanks to school, stress, and overall laziness backed by pizza & beer lunches. Taking a year off may or may not have been a good thing as I headed into my annual checkup this year.

First off, it doesn't take a genius (but denial means the scale's in the closet) to know I gained weight since my last checkup in 2005. In fact, I gained about 15 pounds, which isn't good. I'm already considered obese because of my height and weight combo.

But enough about my weight. I got into shape once, I can do it again. I've got my gym membership now (& resolutions at the end of January are no longer called 'resolutions') and once I've warmed up, I'm doing the Cadio-Core Bootcamp too. ONCE... I've warmed up. :)

HDLs (high density lipoprotein) and LDLs (low density lipoprotein) are what everyone refers to as "cholesterol" (HDL is the 'good' to the LDL's bad') and my wife was greatly aniticipating a stern lecture from the doctor about my high cholesterol when I started these checkups on my 30th birthday.... I mean... aniticipation of my 30th.... hehe.

Anyway, the cholesterol numbers themselves aren't the major thing. It's actually the ratio between the two that counts. When you hear of someone needing to lower their cholesterol, they have to (guys anyway) lower the LDL and maintain the HDL. HDL can be maintained with the good diet and some exercise. LDL can be lowered by the same.

But, again this year my LDL is too low and it concerns the doctor because it means my ratio is bad. REALLY bad. My HDL is fine, but my LDL is low and that means that I need the exercise to lose the extra baggage (and every type of baggage is lost with exercise).

And I also need to drink more alcohol. To keep it healthy: I shall continue to enjoy my red wine on a daily basis.

Hee hee.

The One with More Information on Fat Kitty

Video footage here.

Fat Kitty, AKA 'Goliath but actually named 'Hercules,' lives in Oregon and, sadly, is not up for adoption.

So, we must all love Fat Kitty from afar.

Fat Kitty still makes me happy.

So does my latest job interview this Friday afternoon.

But Fat Kitty is making me happier.

The One About My S-M-R-T Smarts!

Yes, I spelled it S-M-R-T. Go back and watch Simpson's already!

I mentioned at one point that I get a daily email with a Mensa puzzle. Today, it seems I figured out the puzzle before the answer was available online. THAT is s-m-r-t smart. :)

Here's the 'puzzle' in a little bit of a different form:
1 - Draw a 4x4 grid.
2 - Write c-o-d-e in the top row.
3 - Using the 'c' in the top row, write c-o-d-e in the left-most column.
4 - now add 1 V, 2 E's, 1 A, 1 S, & 4 R's in the remaining blank spots so that every column has a word and every row has a word.

It took me about 5 seconds to do.

And 3 hours later, it's still not on the site.

Smart!

The One With My Happy Place

If I've found a happy place to ignore the doldrums life has become lately, it's right here...
with the FAT KITTY!

Ooh! Look at the fat kitty! He knows he's fat and doesn't care! They called him Goliath, but he said 'No! Fat Kitty's name is not Goliath! Fat Kitty's name is Hercules!"

Aw, Fat Kitty.

I like my happy place.

Especially with a fat kitty. :)

The One About My First Head Cold of 2007

It was only a matter of time. I made it 17 days in 2007 before the sore throat, stuffy nose and pounding headache returned. 2 weeks without one almost seems a record after last year where I swear I had this cold on a weekly basis. It really hit hard after my phone interview. Talking for 45 minutes didn't help my throat at all.

So, I'm off of coffee and back to tea (pomegranate green tea, to be exact) and pining for someone to take my son away for a little while so I can honestly rest.

OK, gotta go help my son with something again. *sighs*

The One About the Phone Interview

I've never had a telephone interview before. It was definitely a new experience for me and my major concern was the scratchy feeling in my throat when I woke up yesterday morning.

He called at the exact moment he said he'd call and a promised 30-45 minute interview wrapped up at just over 45 minutes.

I did do some 'homework' on phone interviews before I started. Ensured I only took a drink while he was talking (and tried not to slurp over the phone --hehe), cut down on "um's" and "ah's" while I talked. The one thing I couldn't do was sit still. I tried just to sit in the kitchen and talk, but found myself wandering from one room to the other as I answered his questions.

He did say he had one dreaded question: salary expectations. I answered with a record of what I was making previously and therefore what I was "used to," but also that I was looking at this position as the opportunity to get my foot in the door. He replied I'd be pleasantly surprised by the annual salary.

I like surprises.

So, with the interview over, my confidence was through the roof and even his email later about changes to the position only threw me off for a little while. My next interview will be with someone else as the position is no longer his responsibility. That's fine. There was no "thanks and good luck in your job search" in the message, so I'm taking it positively.

Then the good ol' "career advisors" chimed in with another round of job postings: accounting, reception, sales. Sales? Yeah, not only "sales," but working for a guy who used to be at the school as a "career advisor" and whom I had a lengthy argument with at the mid-way point of my program. He hated my work and said I'd never make it in my chosen field (ironically, he's right so far), but for a guy who walked in halfway through my presentation, I don't exactly take what says as 'canon.' I called him a few things afterward because I was so furious with his attitude, all the time dreading this was the guy who was supposed to help me find work. So, you could imagine my pleasure at hearing he was leaving a month later.

So, yeah, the phone interview was great and glad to get it done. My name's out there again and maybe something will happen.

This time.

The One With Mounting Frustrations

Wednesday was an excruciatingly frustrating day. Moment after moment seemed stalled by annoying circumstances.

We bought a new phone with built-in answering machine & call display because we want to drop our voicemail from our phone plan and add the call display. This needed to get done ASAP as I hate waiting for phone calls from potential employers and getting bloody phone calls from vacuum cleaner sales people, or Capital One Mastercard. They call twice a week.

So, I called up the phone company to make changes to our plan. On the first attempt, the system let me know there was an error and hung up on me. On the second attempt, the same thing happened. On the third attempt, it happened again. On the fourth attempt, the system told me my phone doesn't exist in the directory. On the fifth attempt, I got a live person. She refused to help me because my name isn't the primary name on the account. A week earlier, when we first looked into it, they'd told my wife either one of us could make those changes.

So, nothing was done and 30 minutes were wasted away.

I went to pick up my daughter from school and nearly got run down by a van as I crossed at the crosswalk. She was doing at least twice the speed limit, 30 km/h, and I was one a of a few people who approached her van when she pulled over to pick up her child from kindergarten!

Needless to say, I was livid when her response to speeding through the school zone a minute before the kids were dismissed "they're out in a minute!" She was about to be beaten when the principal came over to see what the problem was. I told her she needed to call the police as this woman was driving recklessly and dangerously in school zone. Stupid woman. The police were called and despite talking to 5 different people, she got off with a warning. Urgh. I'm hoping the police come out a little more often to watch how fast people drive by the school. It's getitng ridiculous and someone's going to get hurt --SOON.

The other major thing on my 'to do' list was renew my car insurance. My notice for renewal was mailed before the insurance company wrongly decided I was at fault for the accident, so I was trying to figure out on their website, just how much more I'd be expected to pay. I couldn't figure it out. I know what level I'm at, but there are 3 sections to that level and I'm "somewhere" in the level. Whatever happened, I was looking at a 3-5% increase in my insurance. Not a huge amount of money, but it would be one more thing to get corrected after meeting with the arbitrator and getting the decision overturned. So, I figured there would be problems aplenty when I went to renew it.

Not only were there no problems, my insurance actually went down an additional $5 a month and it only took about 4 minutes for the clerk to process everything. Sweet!

I never thought getting my insurance would be the highlight of the day.

The One About Missing Coffee

Monday was a definite Monday.

I lost my coffee, isn't that sad?

Seriously, I spent the majority of the day sitting in front of the TV or the computer and somehow my coffee vanished. It wasn't anywhere I'd gone and I even checked other rooms/locations "just in case" I'd stepped into them for a moment and put my coffee down.

Nothing.

It wasn't in the carport. It wasn't in the bathrooms. It wasn't in the bedroom. It was just gone. And I haven't found it yet.

There's a remote chance that after my first cup of coffee I put the mug in the sink to soak, but that doesn't make much sense to me as I usually need a couple cups just to get going in the morning.

Either Monday was a bad day or my mind is mush.

The One About Being Down

Today was a 'down day.' The morning started out fine, but around lunch time I just seemed to spiral into a fairly long funk.

I got the news the other day I've been shortlisted for a very good job and received lots of encouragement from various people, including the "high-fivin' super-special career advisors" who had informed me of the job in the first place. So, as I'm sure you could imagine, I was pretty hyped about the whole thing.

Now, two things happened today... well one happened and the other one is just me in my funk and with lowered expectations. First off, the career advisor calls to say that they'd gotten more information for this job I'm interviewing for on Thursday. Apparently, I don't have the background they're looking for (although that doesn't mean the interview isn't happening on Thursday), but basically the career advisor was "advising" me not to get my hopes up.

I blew up.

See, when I'm looking into any potential job I do some research. I find information on the position (like duties and responsibilities), what the company is like, and maybe even which projects they're currently working on. So, you can imagine my surprise when the advisor comes back and lets me know they've just figured out something about the job. And then on top of that, to tell me not to be confident. Thanks, that's what I need just before an interview.

The second thing that may --or most likely won't-- happen is a reference from my favorite boss at my old office. In 7+ years at that office, I had 5 different bosses. The final one, the one From Hell, who was a major 'star' of this blog for 'My Year,' was obviously the worst. But the boss I had in the middle was great. We got along really well, he could communicate with me on issues that were coming up and he could relay problems I was having in such a way that I could correct them in a timely fashion. Like I said: he was a good boss.

But I haven't spoken to him in years and I need him as a reference. I'm not sure if he'll do it and I wanted to give him a heads-up that I'd like to put his name on my reference list.

I sent him an email, but I got into my funk pretty soon afterward. If I can't secure a reference for 7 years of my professional life (not that I can secure one for the 4 years prior to that either --one died and the other was deported), then I'm screwed many times over when it coems to landing work.

So, the funk stays for now.

The One About Enjoying Movies For a Change

After a Summer/Fall where virtually every movie I watched was a major disappointment, you could imagine my surprise over the Christmas holidays and winter upon discovering a number of movies I found enjoyable.

I stated in a previous post that I'd gone a little crazy buying DVDs after my post-Christmas illness and I finally curbed that after another week when I spent $30 and came home with 'Munich' (I'm a huge Spielberg fan), 'History of Violence,' 'Syriana,' and 'Superman II The Richard Donner edition.'

Good haul, eh?

Aside from Superman II, all 3 are movies I'd watched before but felt I was fairly distracted enough by schoolwork that I missed out on a real viewing of these films. Superman II was a new version of the original film and I knew it would be different enough that it would be an entirely new experience. Now, out of these 4 new films, I've actually only watched 'Superman II' and 'Syriana.' 'Superman II' was an incredible "do-over" with the original script and several scenes that had actually been filmed during production of the first Superman movie in the 1970s. Marlon Brando had a key role in this version of the film and the relationship between Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane really went up a notch. There were several ties with the original film, so it literally felt like the entire film occurred within a week of the original. Donner's story, had it been told originally this way, most likely would have led to some higher quality follow-up movies (where instead we got the menace of Richard Pryor --& Jon Cryer for God's sake-- in 'Superman III' and some nuclear whacko in 'Superman IV' --killing the franchise until 2006). In some ways, I think watching the theatrical version of 'Superman II' first, then watching the Donner edition I might've caught a few more subtle changes, but then I wouldn't have enough time to watch both back-to-back.

'Syriana' I would describe as "yet another George Clooney movie." I don't know. I liked the Ocean's films and have really enjoyed the action films he's done in the past, but he really loses me in films like 'Syriana' and 'Good Night and Good Luck.' It took me a while to figure out what exactly throws me off of these films and I think it's actually the complete lack of a soundtrack in the films. It's just too freakin' quiet. I don't know if you're supposed to feel as if you're right there with the people in the film, but there's so little background noise, it's hard to imagine being in such a location and hearing nothing except for the 2 to 5 people talking. Music adds a level of intensity and emotion that just seemed to be missing.

At the library last week, I was happy to see on the shelf that there were some more current 'mainstream' DVDs available. I've picked up the odd documentary and/or BBC or PBS production from the library in the past, but it's only on a rare occasion I see something newer available. I borrowed 'American Splendor' and 'Friday Night Lights,' two movies I hadn't seen before.

'Friday Night Lights' looked to be your typical everyday American football movie. Seriously: it really does feel like there's another football movie coming out everyday. This one, however, really seemed to be an exception to the rule. I have noticed a theme of getting name actors to play the coaches in these films (Jon Voigt in 'Varsity Blues,' Al Pacino in 'Any Given Sunday,' Denzel Washington in 'Remember the Titans,' Matthew McConaughey in 'We Are Marshall,' and Billy Bob Thornton in this one) to help stir up emotions. Honestly, from a Canadian point-of-view, I still can't comprehend how people get behind their high school teams this way. Now, if it were hockey I could understand. Anyone who questions why Canadians (not all of us, but a good number) are so into hockey, just look to thyself and see the emotions behind football, basketball, and baseball. Then look into the irony that the national baseball and basketball MVPs are Canadian (and, for me, their respective hometown's are less than a 3 hour drive away).

But enough about that philosophy.... I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I expected to.

'American Splendor' is one film I've wanted to see for quite some time. I've enjoyed Paul Giamatti's work in the past ('Sideways' was great and he totally stole every scene in 'Howard Stern's Private Parts'). Harvey Pekar is a comic writer who basically stars in a comic about his life --boring and spiteful as it is. In a lot of ways, Pekar was a pioneer of blogging, only he did it as a comic book. Even the real Pekar admits, as the narrator of this film, that every artist draws him differently, as if he's different incarnations. This fits the film so well that when scenes cut from Giamatti as Pekar to the real Pekar, then cut to an animated drawing of Pekar, there's no confusion. It fits because Harvey has already said there's different incarnations of himself. Pekar isn't the only one who swaps incarnations throughout the film. He's joined by his wife and daughter, and a few co-workers as well. I don't think his friend and original artist Robert Crumb appears as himself in the film but there's some amazing parallels between 'American Splendor' and Robert Crumb's own film 'Crumb.' Both are filled with a spotlight on the emergence of a new comics underground.
You'll have to forgive me for writing even more about movies. I was just so happy to finally see some that I've enjoyed --even if there a few years old.

The One About A Quiet Sunday

Today was the first Sunday since mid-December where my wife & I haven't had an argument about... anything.

Yeah, that means both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve were bad days and hopefully the holiday stresses are finally beginning to disappear around here.

I tihnk last week was the most upsetting. The arguing just came out of nowhere... and then we headed to church.

Like I said, a lot of it has to do with stress. Yes, I'm fully aware I've barely been working (and "the check's in the mail" for the work I have done, of course) and if anyone thinks I'm sitting idly by thinking life's good.... well, maybe there's more to me laying awake until 4 in the morning. And then to be at church where I haven't felt welcome in almost a year. It's been a year since I resigned from the various positions/responsibilities I had at the church simply because I needed to focus on finishing school. Now, however, barely anyone talks to me and at the end of the service while my wife gets the kids, I stand by myself and hold onto their jackets. Last week, the pastor wanted people to share how they're feeling right now and person-after-person went up to talk about good things in life, or how they're dealing with struggles in their daily routines. I sat back and wondered if anyone actually cared. See, it struck me as I sat there that people only talk to me there when they want advice. I have a few 'friends' that are much the same way. If they need a suggestion or some advice, they come to me. The only thing I was thinking that day is "what makes anyone think I'm there to lead them out of the dark? I'm in the dark too."

Anyway, it's depressing. And 'depressing' has a pretty good hold on me these days. But at least today's been quiet.

The One Where Something Actually Happened

2007 so far has been a year of waiting for something to happen....

It's only January 14th, so.... yay, something happened?

A week of bad-mouthing the career advisor seems to have paid off. In talking to the other advisors, I received a call on Friday that I've been shortlisted for a cool sounding job. I have a phone interview next week. Naturally, I emailed the guy and said I was available everyday (fibbing a little as I plan on heading out on Monday morning --oops!). I told him Tuesday morning and Thursday morning are completely open and should work best.

After I sent the message, I remembered my son's field trip on Tuesday morning. Screwed up already. 99.9% guarantee that I'll have the interview on Tuesday, right?

I was invited to a couple of conference meetings on Friday at the newly-built Simon Fraser University campus. OMG it's huge and beautiful! It's actually a skyscraper (well, "skyscraper" of 15-19 floors, anyway) built alongside an older shopping mall that's been completely gutted and refurbished to be a modern mall with a 'hive' of classrooms looking down on the shops. The conferences were hosted by the university and the speaker is a video game designer who has taught classes at MIT and NYU. They were quite interesting talks and he had a lot of 'audience participation,' including about 100 people playing rock-paper-scissors. And there was a point to it all too. But I'll digress...

WE had snow again this week as well, so the drive home on a Friday night on frozen highways was not particularly fun. I stayed with the traffic rarely going above 80 km/h (40 mph). There were a few guys feeling invulnerable in their Ford F350s and Chevy Whatevers who blast by at 120+ km/h, one of them weaving in and out of the traffic going slowly to try and avoid the black ice patches. Within 10 minutes, he was upside down along the side of the road.

By the way, you know people can't handle the snowy weather when a helicopter lands in the middle of the freeway...

I had $5 left after coming home from the conference and I put it into a collection pot this morning at a breakfast. It was for a lady from our church who's spent most of her life living in (I think) Cameroon and she needed a new head gasket for her truck. It was $640 and we needed to raise another $300, so I tossed in my $5. I'd just spend it on something stupid anyway, I might as well put it somewhere where it does some good for a change.

The One With My "Career Advisors"

Got an email yesterday from one of the 2 "career advisors" from school. Oh yeah, they get quotes around their title.

The message announced a career fair scheduled for this weekend. Nice flippin' timing. If I complain about this to them (like, how long have you known about it and couldn't you give more notice than 3 days!?!?!), they'll put the blame back on me for not checking the website on a regular basis. The career fair's being organized by this one group in Vancouver that hasn't done a thing since early September. I checked regularly up until November, but gave up wasting my time on the site after that. Yep, my fault for not noticing when they eventually did something (and honestly, if I was planning on a big event in January, I'd be putting something on a website as soon as the planning started so that it could generate interest --but then, that's why I'm unemployed, right?)

The other annoying thing in the email message was the sentence: "The career fair is open to the public." A sentence like that makes me assume one thing: It's free.

It's not. It costs $40 to go. If I'm going to pay $40 for the ticket, $10 for parking, $10 for food, and another $10 for gas (or more), then I'd better walk out of there with a job. No ifs and's or but's about it. So, honestly, I'm thinking of not going in (especially since I asked for clarification about the ticket price and haven't received a reply yet --losers).

I'll get blamed for my negative attitude next. Duhr.

On a plus-note in the ol' job search.... one of my classmates contacted me last week from his "dream job" (his words) and let me know that the company has a referral program. He took my resume to the HR office 5 minutes later. If I get hired there I'm not letting the "career advisors" know about it. They'd take credit for it within seconds.

Right now, they've started their focus on my previous working skills and are trying to land me an office job in reception/customer service. Those jobs pay $10 an hour and with a 4+ hour commute everyday, I'll be spending $500 a month on gas. I'd be grossing about $1600 a month, which means I'd have basically nothing left to pay for anything else. Math is not a strong point with these people.

The One With All the Snow

Got dump?

I know Dreama could really care less about this, although knowing that I've bugged her and our mutual 'mates' for nearly a decade about our beautiful 'winter' weather....

The first 'major' snowfall of 2007 hit this morning and once again schools are closed down with the 3-4 inches of snow. I'd shovelled our driveway before 8 this morning (I'm usually still asleep at 8), but now have to entertain my kids for the next 12 hours before they're off to bed.

I'd love to entertain them with some movies or something, but my son's decided he's scared of the DVDs he got for Christmas. No 'Cars' and no 'Curious George.' Seriously!

He's nearly the age I was when I first saw 'Star Wars.' I wonder if he could handle that?

I tihnk it's still snowing. It has been on-and-off, but the wind's picking up (again), so there's snow blowing off the trees too.

We're in for a cold week as the temperature's dropping tonight and staying low all week. And we're in store for a few more windstorms to sweep across too, so the temp could dip down to about -20. You have no idea how rare a temperature like that is around here.

The One With All The Sudoku

I mentioned I received a lot of Sudoku products for Christmas. Serves me right for sitting down and doing at least one Sudoku puzzle a day (a trend I started in school in order to keep my brian functioning).

I received a Sudoku bookmark, a Sudoku puzzle book (with over 1300 puzzles inside!) and a Page-A-Day Sudoku calendar for my daily Sudoku fun!

The calendar is interesting as it gives a space to write in the time it takes me to finish each puzzle.

Well!

Having two young children means that even the easiest of puzzles takes a little longer than forever. So, what I've done is written in the time I start, then when I stop for an interruption, then when I continue, etc. My latest puzzle (a 'hard' one) has 4 times written down. In all, it took me 25 minutes to do the hard one (don't think that's a good time anyway), but the reality is it took me from 10:50am - 1:05pm to do it. So, no wonder I write in the actual time I spent working on the puzzle.

Well, I still have 1500 puzzles to keep me occupied.... that's if I don't do the ones in our daily papers.

The One About More on the Car Accident

I finally heard back from the insurance company today. I'd argued with them regarding the fact that the other driver came out of a side lane and hit me. Well, after 3 months (it will be 3 months on January 9), they still say it was my fault.

Until she read the witness' report (which no one had done up to that point, I guess --GEEZ!!). The witness claimed that I was driving along the main road when the other driver came out of a side lane, never stopped and hit me. So glad no one read that, but because the insurance company already closed the claim, I have to go through an independent arbitrator to settle the claim in my favour.

So, there'll be more news next week.

I'm really beginning to hate the entire world these days.

The one about Calendars

I usually get a calendar or 2 for Christmas and being stuck at home for now means I have a plethora of calendars when I have more than one. One is a 'page-a-day' Sudoku desk calendar (with an online registration option where I chose to have the Mensa one emailed to me :) ). The other is a video game calendar that game with a magazine I picked up.

I can keep track of my Sudoku puzzle times and the 'score' for the VERY EASY puzzle I did today should be beatable any time. It took me 14 minutes to finish it :(

The One with all the DVDs

I think I mentioned before that I went out finally for my post-Christmas shopping --even though I only made the trip to a few shops before I was tired (the illness from Christmas and all that jazz).

DVDs were majorly on sale in most stores so needless to say, I went a little crazy with my purchases.

I picked up the Daredevil director's cut DVD for $5, although it turns out to be nothing new as I guess when I watched it before it was the director's edition already. Oh well. I got 'Big Fish' for $4. I'm a big fan of Tim Burton (& musician Danny Elfman), so this was a bargain. I also picked up Tim Burton's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' for $7. I've never had 'X-Men' before and for $5 it was added to the collection. Same with 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' '2010,' and 'Hulk.' I had a classmate at school who insisted that Hulk was really good if you watched it as a psychological thriller instead of a super-hero action movie (which, in my opinion, it failed miserably to be). I didn't work as a psycho/thriller either. Still for $5 I can't complain too much (but I doubt I'll watch it again ;) ).

What else? Oh! Another store had some TV series on sale, but most were around the $40+ range and I didn't dare spend that much. They did, however, have both seasons of 'Dead Like Me' on sale for $19.99 (for both!) and that was a definite picker-upper. I really enjoyed that series (haven't seen every episode yet, though) and it was filmed locally. In fact, in the opening sequence, they have a shot of Vancouver and one of the buildings in the background is where I"m hoping to get a job within the next few weeks :) ).

So, plenty of DVDs to watch over the next few weeks. I should also mention there was a coupon for $5 admission to see 'Happy Feet', so we took the family to see it on Saturday. Despite the rebate coupon for the soundtrack expiring in 2005, the Happy Feet coupon expired yesterday. So, saved $5 on one movie and spent $5 for get the coupon :)

The One with the Reflections on 2006

So, to start, last night was the first time in decades I didn't see a ball drop or get to count down to Midnight.

Nope, I got to continue arguing with my wife until the final minutes of 2006 and then into 2007.

Yeah, a differing of p.o.v. when it comes to who does what around the house. Seriously, it's just a typical argument and we have it all the time, but yesterday's just took 15 hours to finally wrap up.

No, it doesn't mean anything's resolved. It just means we finished arguing.

In all, finishing off the year that way really fit the entire way the year went. There was tons of conflict, there was a lot of illness, and there was a lot of talk about me not working. And a lot of blame being thrown about --apparently all by me and then naturally it's all actually my fault.

Whatever.

I'll take the blame that I'm unemployed because I didn't bother looking for work over the final 2 weeks of 2006. Naturally, that time of year is a bounty of employment opportunities.... sheesh.

Again, whatever. 2006 is over and I'm leaving it far behind. It's time to look forward to 2007. And I should since it's already started!!