Shopping Booty

State-side shopping was really good to us! I've become a huge fan of DSW, and we were introduced to Ross, TJ Maxx and Kolhs. My sister describes Ross as a step above Winners and TJ Maxx and Kolhs as a step above Ross, but all these stores still sell ridiculously discounted items.

My main frustration was that there weren't a lot of shoes in my size (still!). I'm a 5-5.5, and a lot of shoe manufactures start at size 6. Booo on them!

Both hubby and I spent just under $200 USD each, and we were a bit worried that we would have gone over the 48 hour limit (which was $200 CAD), but we discovered (at the Duty Free shop of all places) that it's now $400 CAD. Whoo hoo! Hubby landed some really nice Bostonian dark brown shoes from the Clark's store in Bellevue Square, an Addidas running hat that he's been looking for (in a shoe outlet store of all places), and a square bamboo cutting board which he is very proud of. My mom got some Royal Dalton for dirt cheap.

Here's a list of my stuff, in order of price:

I got this at the Nine West outlet store for $13.99. We were all shocked as it was marked higher. There were even two sales girls checking the price. But I'm not one to complain!



Also a Nine West purse, but got this one at Ross. This isn't the actual purse, but it's close enough to what I have. Mine has an additional size zip pocket on either end-s of the bag, and the buckle's slightly bigger:



From the Kenneth Cole outlet store:



From DSW, so cute! (Sorry pic is so big!)



From the Sketchers outlet store




And my most expensive purchase, at $49.99USD, I couldn't find a picture for. Booo! They're plain black leather ballet flats with a string bow at the toe, pretty simple looking.

The patio table has landed in Seattle

Well, after all the worrying about US Border Crossing Guards stopping us and searching our car, when we reached the border, that never happened. I think a lot of it is:

1. We've crossed the border with the same car several times before
2. We didn't fit their typical profile of a terrorist and/or drug dealer
3. We gave the guard our passports
4. We didn't lie when we answered the questions.
   
5. All three of us looked him directly in the eye and didn't act nervous or suspicous
   

We spent a total of 30 seconds talking to the guard. He asked us about the patio table and the bike (they were in plain sight for anyone to see), but then waved us through! I suppose that when he scanned our passports, our personal records probably came up, and there wasn't anything suspicious about us. We were nervous cause we sat forever in the lineup even though there were only a few cars ahead of us.

Anyways, mondo shopping tomorrow. Whoo!

The next few day...

Wednesday:

• Go to Chiropractor
• Go to work
• Go home and finish packing
• Go grab something to eat on our way to Seattle
• Crash at my sister's place

Thursday:

• Shopping! Probably at Bellevue Square, my favourite Seattle-area mall

Friday:

• Shopping at Seattle Premium Outlets
• Come home

A couple of notes:

• We will be going down with my mother (help me!), a large patio table and an old bike in the back (don't ask)
• We will be coming back sans large patio table and bike, but with my mom and my sister.

Confused. Welcome to my life. This quick trip down took a bit logistic juggling. I had already booked my days of for Wednesday and Thursday, but after talking to my mom and my sister, we changed it to Thursday and Friday as my sister wanted to come back up for my dad's birthday.

Even though I really shouldn't be spending more money, I discovered that I really need a bit of a break, so we decided to go stateside for couple of day; retail therapy is definitely in order. Hubby wants to look for a pair of brown shoes. I'm looking for a couple of cute pairs of shoes and a new bag/purse. I will post booty when we come back.

Right now, I'm more worried about getting that stupid table across the border.

Billy bounces balls.

Someone with too much time on his hands. I kept on gawking at how nice his (parent's, I'm assuming) house is. I also wonder how many takes they had to take to get all those clips. Like I said, someone has too much time on their hands.

Harry Potter, the next movie

Squeeeeee! I can't wait for July! I've been reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price in preparation for the next and final book, also coming out in July. These stories stopped being children's stories a long time ago.

Darth Vader hits the skies

I'm more than a Star Wars loser than I thought. This is so cool.

[Source]

KOOKY: Multitasking

I noticed today that when my co-op student went to the loo, he brought his laptop with him. When I asked him about it, he said that he likes to "multitask" when sitting on the porcelain throne.

My co-op is a very strange boy.

Vacation Planning

So for the past little while, we've been trying to figure out holidays for this year. I had quite recently realized three things: 1) my summer's going to be very busy with work 2) I have 5 weeks of vacation, of which I have to use up at least 3 and 3) a lot of my co-workers have already booked time off. So I need to get my butt moving with the vacation plans.

Here's what we have planned so far:

• Shopping trip in the US end of this month
• Calgary visit end of June
• End of August - unknown location for 5th year Anniversary!
• October sometime (not Thanksgiving) - trip out to Toronto/Ottawa to visit friends (mostly hubby's)

One of the big things that we're working around for trip #1 & #2 is the fact that we have to cart family around, namely my mother and sister. That also requires working around work their work schedules. Mum is coming down with us for the Seattle trip, and on our way back up, we are bringing back my sister so we can do a birthday bash for my Dad. Then on trip #2, Mum's coming back with us to Calgary, but she's wanting to stay longer. Fine with me, but we have to book the tickets before the end of day tomorrow.

Let's see how everything eventually pans out....

The Ultimate Canuks Fan

This guy actually appeared on the front page of the local newspaper.

More Art!!

Between 11 and 25 March, Swiss artist Felice Varini and his team created an unusual piece of public art that is set to baffle and fascinate visitors to Cardiff Bay barrage. The piece, entitled 3 Ellipses for 3 Locks, was commissioned by arts agency CBAT for the Cardiff Harbour Authority and cost £25,000. A series of three yellow ellipses have been painted onto the working locks, gates and even the outer sea wall to create a piece that took a year to plan. The artist used photography, projection and painting to plan the piece which is his first in Wales and also his first work in the UK. Professional mountain climbers were required to access the barrage's difficult high structures. The piece was designed to highlight the main working parts of the barrage. The Harbour Authority approached CBAT to commission the piece, which compliments another 30 open air art projects dotted around the bay area. From virtually every angle the marks look like splashes of yellow colour against the backdrop of the Penarth headland and the Bristol channel. But on closer inspection visitors to the Barrage are treated to a visual spectacle featuring three perfectly formed yellow ellipses. All you have to do to see Felice Varini's 'anamorphic illusion' properly formed, like in the above picture, is find a precise vantage point somewhere on the barrage.

[Source]

Art!?!

The picture above is a four-story version of Donkey Kong. Made entirely of Post-It Notes. Someone has way too much time and money on their hands.

[Source]

Rest in peace Gramma

I never knew Augusta "Billye" Maver in real life, but I got to know her in cyberspace. I first "met" Gramma through someone on Hitched; it was this lady's grandmother whom she took care of at home.

Through the last year or so, I got to learn a lot about Gramma, especially through her blog that her granddaughter put up. This lady last December turned 100, definitely a huge milestone for anyone. I even sent her a birthday card.

I found out this morning that she had passed away in her sleep. While I never knew this woman personally, I found myself very affected by her death. I actually spent the morning fighting off tears and trying to concentrate on my job.

Please do read through her blog, she certainly was a spunky lady and she has certainly left an impression on me.

Pride and Prejudice: Barbie Style

Bawhahahah! I almost died when I saw this, although it took a second viewing to figure out who was who. The blonde is Bingley and Jane, the Ken doll with the beard is Darcy, and Aladdin is Wickham, who ends up with Lydia at the end. Good times!

Hello, I'm... Linux

Hubby's more or less gotten Ubuntu set up and he's loving it so far. I also noted that one of my co-workers also put Ubuntu on his spanking new laptop (same model as mine, but without the wide-screen). Here are some spoofs to keep you entertained...

[Source]

AWOL

I may not be posting for the next week or so. Life has suddenly become amazingly busy, and I don't know how much time I can even devote to my personal life. Going to the gym has already been thrown out the window for the rest of this week. Bah.

Some things that had happened so far this week:

• We had a new guy start at work (finally!)
  
• I almost melted at the gym last night. The air conditioning unit died during my step class. My instructor kept telling us that we didn't want to know how hot it was
• After several false starts, hubby's finally managed to download the Ubuntu iso and will be playing around with it for the next little while. He's going to wipe off the W2K on our 7 year old laptop and install Ubuntu. (He's also a little fed up with MS). This will be an interesting experiment. More to come later.
• We're trying to sell our coffee table

Things that are happening this week and next:

• My big project at work is finally starting up. I'll be in meeting most of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, so I will be getting very little work done. Plus I don't know how busy I'll actually be until they start setting time lines late this week. We have2 months to make thing thing work, so it'll be tight. Lucky for me, they are feeding us, breakfast included. Whoo!
  
• I really need to continue on with school work, that's kinda stalled this whole month for various reasons
• I'm going to the car show. Whoo!
• We have visitors staying at our place all next week. I need to clean my house. Joy.
  

Movie Review: 300

Today, hubby and I went to go see 300. As I didn't know much about the movie, here are some impressions that I had.

Things I liked:

• Lots of really buff half-naked men wearing what looked like black Speedos and red capes. What I noticed was a lot of the actors were in their late 30s and early 40s, so there was an impressive amount of man-meat to drool over.
• The CGI was awesome and very well done. If you can watch this movie in IMAX, do so. I heard that they spent about 6 weeks filming in front of blue screens and 1.5 years doing the CGI. They managed to blend the CG in with the real people very well, and it was visually quite stunning.
  
• David Wenham. I've now seen him in Lord of the Rings and Van Helsing, as well as 300, and he's really impressed with the range of his acting skills. And he looks hot half-naked in black Speedos. Ha.
• The battle scenes were very well done.
  

Things I thought they could have improved upon:

• The script. The movie had too many battle scenes. About halfway through the movie, I checked the time. That's always a bad sign for me. And the plot was not very well developed and certain times I had to ask myself, why they did that with the plot, it did nothing to the storyline. Or something went over my head.
• Gerard Butler's accent. Don't get me wrong, I love Gerard Butler's accent, and he was very drool worthy flinging his half-naked body across the screen, and my beef isn't with him, it's with the director. Gerard Butler is Scottish, but I noted that pretty much everyone else spoke with a British accent in the movie. It may not be a big deal to some but I picked up on it and it grated on my nerves. Even David Wenham, whose Australian, managed a British accent. I suppose a part of this rant came from last night, when I watched most of Beowulf & Grendel on TV. That movie wasn't spectacular, and I was a bit disappointed as I really was looking forward to watching it. Not only did Gerard Butler's Scottish accent appear when everyone else had put on a British accent, but even worse, they allowed Sarah Polley, whom I love as an actress, to use her native Canadian accent. Another good example is The Phantom of the Opera, yet another Gerard Butler movie, where Christine and Raoul were very good, the actors were allowed to use their natural American accents, while the rest of the cast used English accents. I found this really jarring and it made me enjoy the movie less. Gerard Butler was very good in this role, and I think he made me fall in love with The Phantom all over again. My main rant is, unless the story allows for varying accents, please be consistent with the accents, as having conflicting accents when you're not expecting it really diminishes the over all effect that you're trying to make. It's the director's choice for doing stuff like this, not the actors, so I blame them.
  
• Lena Headey, who plays the Queen, slouches. I've picked on people in the past who slouches because I have really bad upper back problems due to computer work, so I suppose I'm hypersensitive to stuff like this.

So all in all, I give the movie 7 out of 10. The generous marks go to the awesome CGI work and the half-naked men.

Happy Birthday to Meeee!!!

Today is my birthday. I'm now coughthircoughtycoughfivecough. Um I'm 29. For the seventh time. Heh.

Not a very eventful birthday, but still fun. Hubby and I went to go see 300, review forthcoming. Afterwards, we went with my parents, my best friend N and his friend S to Baci Ristorante. The food was yummy. Anyone that lives in the area, you must go to this restaurant. Not only is the food really good, but it's not as expensive as some other places.

All in all, a good birthday!

Birthday Hair!

Yes, it's that time again folks, my yearly Birthday Hair Colour indulgence. Here are the before and after pictures:

Before (note that this was taken earlier in the week at my Grandma's birthday dinner. You are looking at a slightly drunk Weed. Heh)







And after! (I don't think that side of my face is the most photogenic, but you get to see the wicked colouring job. Plus, I need to get a better camera phone, my pictures somehow turn out all red!). I really am loving the red, although it's hard to see.

KOOKY: New toys

New toy for work. A Lenovo T60 15.4" wide screen, duo core Pentium processor laptop, with a huge hard drive and 3 GB of RAM. This thing is sweet! What you don't see is the dual 20.1" monitors (yes, I have two external monitors), a new Logitech wireless mouse and a big ass top-of-the-line docking station that I also got. All compliments of work. I had some fun trying to rearrange my desk yesterday with all the new toys. Heh.

We had some money left over in the budget, so a few of us got new laptops. My boss said, "Get whatever hardware you need to do your job, because I rather you be more efficient with your job with the equipment you need than doing your job poorly because you're not properly equipped. So go forth and spend the money."

I'm not going to argue against that. Spend money he says, and so spend money we did.

KOOKY: The Adventures of Weed

I wrote a really long post, then upon reflection, felt that it was one of the lamest posts that I've written, so I decided to delete it and give you the shortened version instead.

The highlights of my day:
- I had to deal with dog-pee on our office room carpet (it's still there by the way)
- My co-op student's landlord is a 57-year old single man who doesn't do much except watch B-rated slasher movies into the wee-hours of the morning. Apparently, he has hundreds of VHS tapes of B-rated slasher movies in every nook and cranny in his apartment, including my co-op's bedroom. Oh, and he's noticed that my co-op owns a meat cleaver.

I think I'll leave the rest up to your imagination, heaven knows it's probably going to be more interesting than what I wrote originally. And I work in IT!

New Ultimate Ultimate!

I've been playing this song to death. I like it for several reasons:

1. It happy sounding;
2. I like the synth/pop sound
3. It's got wicked bass riffs, and I would love to see if I can copy it one day on my bass (which I don't even have right now, my friend has it sigh).

I love this video, it's so goofy, and the 70s shorts are a great touch. Here's the new ultimate-ultimate, Here In Your Arms by hellogoodbye

Computer Woes!

*** I apologize in advance for all the techie talk ***

So we've been experiencing computer woes for at least several weeks.

First, Shaw's service was less than stellar. I guess the grid that we're on was getting overloaded. Some of the speed test that we did with the tech guy showed that the download speed really sucked, maybe 100Kb/sec. They finally fixed that, and we're now we're getting 4-5 MB.

Second, the router that we've had for a while finally crapped out. It was always flakey to begin with. When I did ping tests, it either timed out, or the data packets took a very long time to come back. Boo. After calling twice today, hubby managed to get a receipt for a replacement. However, we still need a wireless router as I need to stick my web server out in the DMZ for my school project (I don't know how else to do it, I don't do networks or firewalls =P), and my parents need their Internet. Hubby's friend hopefully can lend us a temp router until we get the replacement.

Then I called hubby today to see how he was doing (he stayed home and spoke to two different tech support people in different parts of Asia). He told me he couldn't boot my computer back up. I almost had a heart attack. I was hoping it wouldn't be my hard drive, because, like every good techie, I backed everything up, not! I seriously had visions of having to restart my project (of which I've been working on for 1.5 years) from scratch, so you can understand my concerns. It didn't sound like it, and lo and behold, when I got home, hubby was in the middle of switching power supplies with another box that we have (I was thinking about putting Ubuntu on that box at some point, but until we get a new power supply, I guess not). So it was the power supply that was the problem, and my computer's happy again. The guts are still sticking out (ie, hubby hasn't put the panels back on; apparently, I don't do hardware either), but it's happy. For now.

Sigh.

Marriage Checkup

Last Saturday, hubby and I attended a marriage seminar. This is the second marriage seminar/conference that we've gone to since getting married 4.5 years ago.

When I told my co-workers on Monday what I did over the weekend, they questioned as to why I would do such a thing? My answer: My marriage is in pretty good shape, and I want to keep it that way.

You go to the doctor to do a regular checkup to see if you're healthy. If there's something wrong, then you take steps to fix it. In business, you continually check upon your customers to see if they are happy and that you have a good relationship with them.

So why not have a regular marriage checkup? Why wait for you to be unhappy about your marriage before doing something about it? Marriage is hard work, and no one I know is ever given a user manual to figure out how to get through with it. We can only learn by example and trial-and-error. I am certainly no expert, and I can't say I'm really an expert of my own marriage, so why not get as much help as I can? I'm not perfect, and neither is hubby.

Going to these seminars has given me good ideas as to how develop my relationship with my hubby. The great thing is that hubby is also there, so he hears the same things I hear. I know that we have challenges coming in the next 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 years down the road, so I want to continue to build a strong foundation now.

I find that going to these seminars so helpful. I've been to counselling once in my life (for non-marriage issues), and this is different. I've been given practical tips on communication, sex, and how to deal with issues when they arise, stuff that you don't normally hear in counselling sessions. The first one we attended even had homework for us, but it forced us to talk about and answer questions that we normally (as well as most couples) don't talk about. I suppose you can view it as a user manual for marriage.

The main speakers of these seminars are marriage counsellors, and have been for many, many years, so they've seen it all. They've also seen people heal their marriages, so their advice is certainly worth their weight in gold. What I particularly appreciate hearing is stories about their own marriages. It goes to show you that everyone does deal with the same issues and even those who are the "experts" are also human and just as fallible as we are.

So I strongly encourage any one of you, no matter how long you've been married, or what stage your marriage is at, to try one of these seminars. They have claimed that there were people who attended pretty much as a last resort, and if this didn't work, they would have gotten a divorce. Many have said that it has saved their marriage (not to say that they didn't have a hard road afterwards to fixing their marriage, but at least now they have a focus and a common goal).

Whether or not you believe that, I can believe it because I've come away with positive tools and ideas that anyone can use to continue to strengthen their marriage. Believe it or not, a lot of stuff is pretty common sense, it sometimes takes someone else to point it out.

Please note that the ones that I'm listing here are Christian seminars, although many non-Christians do attend. If you're not comfortable with the idea, don't click on the links.

The one we attended on Saturday: Dr. Gary Chapman
Family Life Canada

Method Products

I'm posting this mainly for my friend T, who is an avid reader of this blog and who works for Evil Telus (you know who you are!).

Several people have told me about Method Products. Method is a company that makes environmentally-friendly, biodegradable cleaning products. Since there was so many people raving about them, I decided to give it I try.

So far, I've tried the Daily Shower Spray and the Cleaning Cloths (Cucumber scent). I have to say I love it! The shower spray, although I don't use daily (because it's still relatively expensive), works great and I don't have to use as much elbow grease when I go to scrub the tub. I also use it on our bathroom sink (again, less elbow grease).

I also bought a bottle of the Cleaning Cloths, and this stuff rules! The clothes are thicker than the Lysol cloths that we currently use, and I found that these cloths clean better than the Lysol ones. Plus the cloths are biodegradable (however, hubby did point out how would it degraded when you wrap it up in a plastic garbage bag, ha!)

Two thumbs up for Method!

Star Wars Mailboxes

Attention all Star Wars geeks! The United States Postal Service is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Wars with R2-D2 wrapped mailboxes.

Now how long do you think these things will remain on the street before someone nabs it for their mailbox collection?

How not to exit from a parking garage

Quote

I found this quote in my Study Bible. It was part of an introduction to the book of Philemon

Everyone says that forgiveness is a wonderful idea, until he has something to forgive. -- C. S. Lewis

Two surprises

Yesterday was an unusual day. The day started off with a wedding. Now normally, weddings, while pleasant affairs, usually aren't big surprises as there tends to be a build-up months in advance leading up to the event.

However, I got the invitation to come to the wedding Friday night after 11pm, after I was already in bed. The wedding was set for Saturday, 1pm. I had less than 14 hours notice, freaked out because I had nothing to wear, I ironed my clothes (something I never do, too much bother), and we rushed to the mall to grab the gift.

My friend married a girl who was not a Canadian Citizen, nor was she a landed immigrant. So to expedite the immigration paperwork, they got married. The bride had come back for a visit to do some wedding planning (they're still having a formal ceremony in June) and of course to see my friend. Little did she know that she was was going to get married. She didn't even bring any dressy clothing with her, so they had to go buy some.

So after everyone arrived, some last minute furniture shuffling and a quick trip to the florist, my friends were hitched. Everyone was surprised, but pleasantly so. The bride and groom had big stupid grins on their faces which mirrored ours. I'm so thrilled for him. It was totally evident that they loved each other. This is one wedding ceremony I won't forget for a long time.

The other surprise was for another friend later that night. Tomorrow is her birthday, and we wanted to do something nice for her. She couldn't make it to the wedding, so we'd asked if she wanted to go for dinner with the rest of us. She would only show up if the newlyweds were going to be there. We let her think that (the bride and groom had an extended family dinner, half the family didn't even know that the wedding had taken place yet!). Anyways, she showed up with a nice bouquet of red roses, ha! The joke was on her. But in any case, we had lots of fun stuffing our faces with yummy Greek food.

Today I feel like a total blimp, too much food from yesterday, and it was a pretty tiring day, but so much fun!

The Not-So-Evil-Homework

Many of you who know me have heard me mention "Evil Homework". What the heck is it? Well, hopefully this will make some sense. I know even hubby doesn't fully understand what's going on, but here goes nothing.

I'm currently finishing my Bachelor of Technology in Computer Systems at BCIT. It's essentially equivalent to a Computer Science degree, but a little more technical and a little less theoretical. (But of course if you ask the illustrious academics at the big universities around town, they'd turn their nose up to it). Two reasons why I'm doing this degree is so this will make me more employable if I should go looking for a job in town or within the country, but also, it opens the door for me to gain employment in my field should I wish to work in a different country. I'm not planning on leaving the country any time soon (or possibly ever) to work elsewhere, but it'll be nice to have that option opened to me.

Anyways, a component of my degree program is to do a large project. I'm not going to get into the details as to why I couldn't do the project through work, it's too complicated, and a lot of it is silly rules that BCIT have built around project eligibility. Bah. Hence, I had to go look elsewhere for a project.

BCIT managed to hook me up with the clients that needed some coding done. Yes, I'm building an enterprise solutions for free. My clients (one is here and another one is in Toronto), are typical clients, despite one claiming that he's "technical". I don't think he's built an application outside of school before, and so he really doesn't understand my frustrations with users that don't know what they want.

The best parallel that I can come up with is that they are asking me to build a house, only they give me a part of the blueprint at a time. No one builds a house with only seeing a small part at a time, but that's what they are doing. Not only that, but the blueprint is incomplete, because users really don't know what they want and hadn't thought through some items well enough. Which required me to fill in parts of the blueprint for them. And build a part of the house with incomplete blueprints that I still haven't seen the whole of yet. So you can possibly imagine what problems I've been facing and why I've been frustrated.

This project has already stretched for 1.5 years. I do have an end date, but it was later than I had first anticipated (more drama, this time with BCIT, long story there as well). I had more than once felt like I was in a dark tunnel with no glimpse of light at the end of it. It got depressing more than once. And it's affected my health (ie stress and back problems)

Well, something happened last weekend. My clients had decided to cut out 1/5 of the final product. You don't know how insanely happy that makes me. I've been constantly stressing about how I was going to be able to finish everything on time. Now the light at the end of the tunnel's getting brighter.

Not only that, but these guys want to start looking for venture capital to fund the product. If they get the money, I was actually offered a job at the end of it. I actually said no, for a few reasons. 1) I'm at the point of my life where I've discovered that, as much as I love development, that part of the world goes way too fast for me to keep up any longer, so I want to move away from it 2)I really need to stop sitting in front of a computer so much because of my health 3) I've already worked for a start-up once, no thanks. 4) My job, while not as technical, give me paid vacation, benefits, regular, non-crazy hours (for the most part) and a kick-ass pension. I'm not wanting to give these things up anytime soon.

However, they did say that they wanted to compensate me somehow if they did get their hands on some money. I was honest. I knew going in that I wasn't going to get paid a red cent, and I was okay with that. However, I'm not one to turn down money should someone offer it to me, I'm not that stupid.

So that's the story of my Not-So-Evil-Homework. Cross fingers that I'd actually finish the darn thing before the end of this year.

Jane Austen TV

So Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park are coming to the UK boob tube sometime soon. I unfortunately have to wait until November to see them. Sigh. At least the not-so-evil-homework will hopefully be done by then (more on that later). Looks good so far...

New furniture!!

We bought this on sale at London Drugs.

KOOKY: 2 out of 3...

Normally isn't so bad, except when the third one is the one that took the job and then took another job leaving us high and dry, and on the hunt for yet another person.

Yes, one of the people who we gave a job offer to decided to take another job. This happens all the time, and he has to do what he thinks is best for him. However, that means that the person that I was going to dump some work on next Monday won't be there. And we have start looking all over again. Sigh.

KOOKY: The interviews

I am now a resume expert. I am also an interview expert. After looking through many resumes and participating in five interviews in the space of three days, my brain has turned to mush.

We're hiring three new people to help with the overflowing workload. I've participated in interviews before (even interviewed my own boss), but this is sticking in my brain right now and I thought I'd put it down while I still remember them.

Some things that I've learned sitting on the other side of the table that I want to share with those looking for a job:

• Anything and everything on a resume (including history gaps) is fair game in an interview. You put it down, you should be able to explain why it's there or why it's not there. Those of you who are thinking about lying or stretching the truth, we'd actually picked through the resumes carefully and noticed inconsistencies. And asked about them.
  
• If you don't understand the question, please ask to have it clarified.
• It's actually okay sometimes to say that you don't know the answer to that question. It does pay to be honest, even though it may be a strike against you.
  
• Listen carefully to the question and make certain you answer it fully, especially two-parters.
  
• This is your chance to ask questions about the job/company/work environment/your boss. Because you're the one doing the asking, this actually tells a lot about you that the interview questions may have missed.
  
• As someone looking for a potential candidate, I actually like specific examples as opposed to vague generalizations. Specific examples help me get a better sense of who you really are and where you're coming from. Anyone can spew out vagueness.
• Look on the Internet for interview questions. There are a ton out there. I looked so I could generate some interview questions, I certainly am not creative enough to think of some on my own. And above all else, practice your answers.
• For those of you looking for techie positions, you will be asked techie questions. You may even have to demonstrate your skill through written tests, scripting, verbal answers, etc. If you say you can do something, be prepared to prove it. (The Internet is also great for this type of stuff.)
  

Nokia 888 Concept Phone

Now this is cool. I don't know if this will ever come out to market, but it's certainly thinking outside of the box.

Unlock your car with a tennis ball

Blondie Unlocks Car - video powered by Metacafe

The year of the Pig

Today is Chinese New Year, the year of the Pig. Hubby is a Pig.

For me, this means family dinner. We had hot pot with my parents and my sister last night. Tonight, another dinner with my mom's extended family.

I personally am not a big fan of Chinese food. I eat the good stuff at least once a month. Anytime the family wants to go out for dinner, it's usually Chinese food that they want to have, hardly ever anything else. Blergh.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

And time marches on...

Here's a little update on what's been happening in the last little while.

• Work drama still continues, but at least now when we turn over rocks, we're not getting any ticking bombs. However, the whole team still feels stressed out. I certainly do. It seems that someone's head may roll for this mess.
• Amongst the work drama, I've been frantically trying to organize interviews for the team. At least half of the interviews aren't even for my work, they're for someone else, but I work with a bunch of men who rather do techie stuff than any administrative work, no matter how small. We need these extra people, even before all the work drama started, so I was the one that did the bullying and got things organized. So ladies, if this is sounding familiar, it's not just a guy thing at home where you ask him to take out the trash and he only does a half-ass job, it extends to the workplace as well. Men in general are just lazy creatures. My husband is the exception, of course =P
• Evil homework has taken a back seat to all my work overtime that I've been doing. Sigh.
• My back has good days and bad days. Today is a not so good day.
• The weather is warming up. I saw flowers poking their heads up from the ground last week, I'll see if I can take pictures.

KOOKY: Moving day

Today myself and two other people moved to an office that was right next door to where we were before. The movers came to take some old wooden desks out from storage and outfit out new digs with enough desks for the three of us, plus the new guy that we have yet to hire on.

They were eager to move lots of furniture and other stuff. However, when I told them that we were suppose to move a couple of white boards over, they said, "No, it's screwed on to the wall. We don't do that. The carpenter's suppose to do that." The carpenter's coming tomorrow to move the white boards over. I so love working in a unionized environment.

I knew I should have brought my power drill. Sigh.

I'm sorry, but this thing is hideous

Apparently it's exactly 3 years to the day when the Olympics start in Vancouver. They'd unveiled the countdown clock today, and it's suppose to remain where it is as a landmark after the Olympics

The thing is hideous. And frankly, boring looking.

I seriously was thinking about leaving town during the Olympics, one of the venues (I think figure skating) is being held at UBC, where I work. Parking will be hell, and the entire university will probably stop functioning, using the Olympics as an excuse for not doing any work. Never mind that, the whole city will shut down. But it looks like we may end up staying in town after all. We'll see, 3 years is still a long ways off.

My Husband Rules!

I'm totally drowning in work drama, and I've been pretty pissed off the last couple of weeks, and hence, very stressed out.

So after coming home after leaving work 2.5 hours after I was suppose to (I by the way get zero compensation for this, I was doing this out of the goodness of my own heart), I come home to chocolates from Sen5es! He said that he hates seeing me all stressed out, so he bought chocolates to help me feel better. Plus, since it's just before Valentine's Day, he got them at expensive Valentine's Day prices.

I'm totally anti-Valentine's Day (too commercial), and hubby knows this, so this is definitely a help-Weed-destress present! I have the greatest husband evah!

Jane Eyre deleted scenes

I'm still debating as to whether or not to buy the DVD when it is released in Region 1 format. Apparently, the Region 1 DVD is going to be just the TV production, without all the extra bits like the deleted scenes and the commentary. Booooooo. This will be the work of PBS.

Thanks goodness for the internet. Some people in the UK have just received their DVDs and, bless their hearts, have shared all the good stuff with the rest of the world. Thank you! whoever you are!

All the deleted scenes from the Region 2 DVD

And my favourite Ruth Wilson scene. It's not my favourite because it's romantic, it's my favourite because it highlights what an awesome actress Ruth Wilson is. This scene was one of the last scenes they shot for the adaptation.

The Borg does Jane Austen

Is it wrong of me to get all excited that my favourite Borg Queen, Alice Krige is going to be in the upcoming Jane Austen adaptation, Persuasion? Alice Krige plays Lady Russell, and while I'm not too fond of Lady Russell the character, I LOVE Alice Krige.

Not everyone knows that there are actually two women who play the Borg Queen: Alice Krige and Susanna Thompson. Alice Krige only played the Borg Queen twice, once in the movie First Contact, and again in the final episode of Voyager. The rest of the time, it was Susanna Thompson.

In my opinion, Alice Krige is the better Borg Queen. She definitely creepier and seems more regal and refined for some reason. Just like a queen. In any case, I met Alice Krige a few years ago at the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, and she's really beautiful. I even got her autograph. I'm still chuffed that I got to meet her.

In any case, I apparently have to wait for the 2007-2008 Masterpiece Theatre season to start before I see the new adaptation of Persuasion. Boooo.

For all the Jane Austen die-hards out there, they are also doing new adaptations of Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, and my favourite Jane Austen novel, Northanger Abbey (finally!). I can't wait!

This n' that

Burning poo is environmental

"People who procrastinate tend to be less healthy, less wealthy and less happy"

31 Simple Ways to Prevent Cancer

26 Tips to Keep Your Computer Up and Functioning

Mindless Web Browser Fun

Go to any webpage (preferably one with not too many images), clear the address bar on your browser (where you type in the URL or http address to get to a website), and copy and paste the text below into the address bar. It should be continuous, with no carriage returns (the text is just wrapping on your browser, but is really one big long string). Then hit "Enter", and watch the fun start.

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

As fun as it is, this is yet another reason why you shouldn't trust javascript showing up unexpectedly anywhere, it can reek havoc on your computer.

KOOKY: I see mountains!

This is essentially the same view as from the other post, but now I'm one floor down and sightly east of the position where the other picture was taken. This is a view out of someone's office window. Unfortunately, it's not my office window.

No, we IT folks get to live in the dungeon, aka the basement. Make that a windowless basement. In order for me to see what the weather's like outside at any given time, I have to walk down a hallway and up a flight of stairs. My manager's not any better either, although he does have his own office.

My director's the lucky one of the bunch. She has windows near the top part of one wall. Enough to let some light in, but not low enough for her to see through. Plus, she has the good fortune of having to share an office with someone else. How the head honcho gets windows and a roommate is anyone's guess.

KOOKY: A definition

In my last KOOKY post, someone asked if the picture of the buildings is UBC. Yes it is. I suppose that some of you started reading my blog after my initial KOOKY posts, and may not know what I'm referring to. So here's an explanation:

I work at UBC, in the Faculty of Medicine. The Faculty of Medicine is roughly divided into what I like to call "The Golden Triangle": academic, research and clinical.

Academic is the area where the programs are run: eg, medical school, physical and occupational therapy, midwifery, etc. Students learn, faculty teach.

Research is the area where people (many faculty who are a part of the Faculty of Medicine) do medical research.

Clinical is the area where there is real health care taking place: doctors (also who are faculty) and nurses treating patients. Although I also believe clinical trials fit in here as well.

Because we are a public body, we have to follow the Golden Rule: The BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act ("FoIPoP"). (We also are governed by the University Act, but that describes how a university is to operate, and doesn't necessarily dictate how IT operates). University polices exist that we normally stick to, but they are also based largely on FoIPoP.

Under FoIPoP, there are two areas which affect us directly (loosely translated of course, don't take this as an absolute translation of the law, I have lawyers at work that will tell me exactly what I'm suppose to do/not do):

1. Thou shall not store any personal information on servers outside of Canada (Section 30.1)
2. Thou shall not allow clinical data to be accessed or stored in the same place where non-clinical data is stored or accessed. (Section 35)

As you can see, this cause a lot of challenges for IT folks, and something we need to always be conscientious of every day in our jobs.

Now, where does "KOOKY" come into play? A Hitched poster, who has been working at UBC for a while, once told me that working for this place is kooky, so I decided to use the term for this series.

As much as I would love to tell you what really goes on around here, a lot of it would just get me into big trouble; it's not really different from any other company anyways. But unlike a private company, a university is a unique alternate dimension unto itself, and you have to work for one to really understand how "special" it is. In any case, I try to keep it light and fun.

Is this place political? Oh yeah. The politics, as much as they affect my job, still amuse me after almost two year. Working in a unionized environment (even though I'm not union) is interesting in itself too. According to my Association, I'm still underpaid. Plus, lots of other fun stuff goes on. And again, all these also pose IT challenges for us, and are equally as kooky to try to accommodate.

So stay tuned for more KOOKY-ness!

KOOKY: Fog

I spent about 16 hours this weeks staring out at this view. There are normally mountains behind the clouds, but today there was fog creeping in. It gave me a focus to keep my mind from going numb. And trust me, having my brain go numb was the highlight of the week.

I'll see if I can sneak into the room later to get a picture with mountains.

Harry Potter is naked

I heard about this a while ago, but didn't think very much of it, as frankly, I don't think Daniel Radcliffe is much of an actor. Plus, I won't be in London to see it when it's in production, so why pay attention to something that I won't get to see.

That is until they released some pictures. Apparently, he's actually naked in most of the play. I thought of posting one of the nudie pictures, but that would be too frightening. However, you can see more here.

For those who have your mind in the gutter, no, you don't get to see his boy bits, but it's pretty obvious that he's nekkid. I'm certain that once this play starts, there will be nekkid pictures of Daniel Radcliffe all over the internet, boy bits and all.

The play also stars Richard Griffths, who plays Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films.

Evil Telus sells porn

Click!

Jane Eyre - Part 2

Just a reminder for those of you who are in the US and Canada, the second part of Jane Eyre is playing tomorrow night on PBS. This part's really steamy! Don't miss it!

(I love the pic, it's Jane Eyre with an attitude!)

Apparently, I'm a prostitute...

Someone sent me this, and even though it's meant to be humourous, there's more truth in it than i care to admit:

The truth about working in the IT industry

1. We work weird (night) shifts...
Just like prostitutes.

2. They pay you to make the client happy...
Just like a prostitute.

3. The client pays a lot of money, but your employer keeps almost every penny...
Just like a prostitute.

4. You are rewarded for fulfilling the client's dreams...
Just like a prostitute.

5. Your friends fall apart and you end up hanging out with people in the same profession as you...
Just like a prostitute.

6. When you have to meet the client you always have to be perfectly groomed...
Just like a prostitute.

7. But when you go back home it seems like you are coming back from hell...
Just like a prostitute.

8. The client always wants to pay less but expects incredible things from you...
Just like a prostitute.

9. When people ask you about your job, you have difficulties to explain it...
Just like a prostitute.

10. Everyday when you wake up, you say: "I'm not going to spent the rest of my life doing this."
Just like a prostitute ........

Sundry

This week has been very atypical for me. Here's a summary:

Work:

• Work drama has increased. Thank goodness the work drama isn't internal to the group, it's external, but we end up cleaning up their messes.
  
• I have two type of projects now: 1) Legitimate projects and 2) Stupid people's projects. Stupid people's projects are projects that we had to take on due to someone else's stupidity. But what this does is it pushes back the legitimate projects' timelines even more. And the stupid people's projects are multiplying faster than rabbits (see previous point)
  
• My team (me, my co-worker and our co-op student) wrote out a list of projects we had on the go or saw was going to happen in the foreseeable future. It was very, very long. I also added another item to said co-worker's list just before I left work yesterday. Bawhahahahah!
• I got raked over the coals by a PI (primary investigator) of a very large and important research centre. Well, the PI thinks that her research is very important (and it is, but no more important than anyone else's), and man, let me tell you it was a deer-looking-in-the-headlights moment. Afterwards, I was vastly amused by the whole thing, but she really asked me some pointed questions that I couldn't answer, or answer well. My other colleague, who was in the room with me and who is the one normally deals with her, said I did okay on my first try. I could tell at one point he was trying to help me out, but by then, I knew I was already being sucked in to accommodate her. And I was warned that she would do it to me too. Dammit.
  
• I got pulled into two ad-hoc meetings which means that 1) I won't get my normal job done (so much for time management!) and 2) they were both at the end of the day, and I had to be there, which in turn extended my work day and increased my stress level.
  

Me in general:

• I'm more stressed because of work, and I can't look forward to going home and decompress as there is the homework stress waiting for me at home
• I was sick with a slight cold, so I couldn't go to the gym. Hence, I feel like a fat blob right now, and it certainly didn't help my stress level any.
• I'm still going to see my chiropractor twice a week, so that also disrupts the normal patter of things. Plus I'm feeling guilty for cutting work so much and I have to work that around gym time and homework time

Some positive things:

• Our team at work is really getting overloaded (I'm not the only one), so my director's looking to hire someone temporarily to alleviate that load. Don't know if that will actually happen, but at least it's acknowledged.
• My manager has come up with a brilliant plan to hire another person to do a specific role, which will take some more pressure off me and my co-worker and let us do our jobs properly, whatever our jobs are (they need redefining). Also don't know if that will actually happen either.
• Work drama, even after almost two years, still seems to amuse me, so I at least don't hate my job.
  
• My cold is gone.
• I'm going to soak in a hot bath right now and forget about my life for about 5 mins.

Sigh

KOOKY: Sigh...

So my indeterminant months of hell has now spread to my colleague (well the one whom I work closest with anyways). It looks like we're going to have to re-write our job descriptions to match more what we actually do. I just hope this ends up reclassifying me to a higher position (I know, dream on!).

At least my manager is beginning to realize that we need to hire a third person for the team, something that I've recognized since day one, but was unable to qualify how or why. Whether or not it actually happens is another story, but a manager that's at least trying to make things better for us is already pretty good in my books. Especially with the way things work around here.

Now I'm trying to figure out what path I want my career to take. So many things to think about. So many other-people's-messes we have to fix.

Sigh.

I've been tagged!

There is a meme that's been going around the blogs, and I've been tagged twice, once by Anne, and once by Lexy.

The rules:
Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 5 facts about yourself. Then choose 5 people you want to tag and list their names. Then leave a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged.

So since I've been tagged twice, does that mean I have to do twice as much? =P

Anyways, here we go:

1. I can hyper-extend my arms at the elbows the wrong direction to the point where it looks like my arms are broken.
2. I'm a fanfiction junkie.
3. I can't stand the smell of coffee (feel for hubby who used to be an avid evil coffee drinker!)
4. I have an inherited genetic blood condition called thalassaemia. About the only thing it does is it makes me feel sleepy/tired all the time, and I don't have the greatest circulation.
   
5. I'm a sucker for British Costume Drama period pieces. Jane Austen is the obvious favourite, but I love others. Hubby has yet to sit through any one show/film straight through without falling asleep.

My five friends that I'm tagging (okay, it's only 3):
Moving Life Forward
Random Synapses
What's the "G" stand for?

Getting a promotion

I found this article a little while ago. I'm wondering who out there is a supervisor/manager type could respond to this. Is what Frank says true?

How about those in the work force? Have you tried any of the suggestions before?

I know that the context is for an IT employee, but I feel that the general idea could be extended to most fields.

Any and all comments welcomed (just please be polite).

KOOKY: Yikes!

So in 24 hours, my fortnight of hell has now become an indeterminant months of hell.

I may have to clean up someone else's mess. Bah.

Plus, I have a few other projects looming on the horizon that I have no idea how long it will take.

Plus, I have to save people from their own stupidity.

I hate to be vague, but any more details will get me fired! Wish me luck!

KOOKY: Fortnight of Hell

I'm going to be on and off of here the next couple of weeks, so you may or may not see me blog for a bit. Work's going to be hectic for a while, and I actually may not have time to do homework or go to the gym. I'm contemplating taking a couple days off after the hell period to actually get caught up with homework. *Sigh*. Worse is that I've done this before (take time off to do homework that is).

Plus, I'm still fighting my cold, so it's just not going to be a good time for me.

In any case, here's a clip from a Voyager episode, call "The Year of Hell". It's one of my favourite episodes. Hubby particularly likes this one, as he always points out, Janeway has this habit of wanting to self-destruct Voyager, only this time she does. Ha.

Excess Weight and Joints

I don't know how I got on Nutrition House's spam list, but I though this article was pretty interesting. It's about how much more pressure we put on our joints by just increasing our body weight.

They also give good preventative measures to avoid joint disease such as arthritis. One thing that I want to point out to my readers is that these things start to degrade earlier in life that you would expect, but it's only later on in life that you notice any symptoms, so it's better to establish preventative measures now to decrease the probability of getting it later on in life.

Even though I'm still relatively young (mid-30s), and I exercise regularly and try to eat healthy, I am starting to feel my age. My thing this year is to try to correct my physical ailments, ie: my neck, shoulder and upper back pains, then my flat feet. Hopefully this will help slow the aging process down.

Sunday mash-up

Today I stayed home instead of going to church. I have a slight cold that I've been fighting since Thursday, but I rarely get sick, so this is really dragging me down.

I've also pretty much ditched doing homework this weekend as I'm feeling so out of it, yet I managed to do laundry, wash dishes, and do my weekly balancing of books. I also hung out with my couples group last night where we ate way too many nachos and discussed charitable giving (the topic for the evening).

Later today will be a trip to the new downtown Costco so my mum can get her snow tires on her car. Irony is that I really don't think we're going to get any more snow. Typically, snow comes (if it comes) in the first part of January. The last snow dump we had a few days ago have all but disappeared, to be replaced by rain and warmer temperatures. However, I have a strange premonition that I will eat my words at some point, we've had such wacky weather so far.

The not doing homework thing over a weekend is not good for me as it ends up putting me further back behind schedule. But that's a rant for another day.

For those who are in the US and Canada, the 2006 BBC version of Jane Eyre is finally airing on PBS tonight! Yay! Okay, I know I've seen it already (thanks to the internet and evil, illegal downloading), but I'm still excited, can't wait to actually watch the thing on a 50" TV instead of bent over my work laptop.

Pictured above is Toby Stephens (my current Brit actor crush) as Mr. Rochester, best known for playing Gustav Graves in the Bond flick, Die Another Day, and Ruth Wilson as Jane Eyre. Miss Wilson is a relative newbie, but the two are amazing on the screen. I quite enjoyed this adaptation, the actors did a terrific job, and the visuals are quite stunning. One word of warning for those who are book purists, the adaptation does stray a little away from the book, especially in Part 3, which airs next week. But take it for what it is: an adaptation (and not a literal translation of the book).

Okay, I hear hubby just come back from the grocery store and he bought me drugs! Yay!

Comfort food

Chocolate ice cream always makes the world seem a bit better after you eat it. Mine was of the Bryer's freezer-burnt variety, but I certainly felt less depressed about my day. Hopefully this feeling will last through the weekend.

Wet Snow

One of the things that people who live outside of Vancouver think is that it hardly ever snows in the wintertime in Vancouver. On the whole, this is true. I remember winters where it never snowed. I also remember winters where we got two feet of snow.

This picture was taken while I was driving to work. It's the south-west corner of Queen Elizabeth Park. I'm sitting on 29th and Cambie, waiting for the light to change when I took the picture. It's about 7.45 am (and if I've gotten to this corner at this time of the day, I'm already running late!) You can't really tell, but it's snowing. And it's snowing my favourite snow: wet snow.

Wet snow is the worse because it ends up being a sloshy mess as soon as it hits the ground, but it's still cohesive enough to accumulate. And it's bloody heavy to shovel. Dry snow is much easer to shovel, and it makes for nice powdery snow. More often than not, we get wet snow.

The worse part is that it will dip just below zero tonight, so the wet snow now becomes ice. I will be driving on ice tomorrow. Hopefully they will salt. Then it will warm up to just above zero and everything will melt slightly. Then it will freeze again.

Thaw and freeze. Thaw and freeze. It's a vicious cycle. Thank goodness it's going to rain the rest of the week, and get rid of all this snow. This is typical Vancouver winter weather.

Usually by the end of January/beginning of February, it starts warming up slightly, and yes, I do see some daffodils poking up. I can't wait for this stupid weather to be over.

Human Sling Shot

Eeeek! Looks like fun though.

LG KE850

Apparently LG is coming out with a touch screen phone and it looks very similar to Apple's version. There unfortunately isn't any specs on the phone, so I don't know if has the same features as the iPhone.

I will say something that LG has that Apple doesn't have: a bigger market share. This phone will probably do better overseas than Apple's phone. I'm still not convinced that a touch screen phone will be very usable, but another bonus is that it's made by someone that already knows how to make cellphones. Experience must count for something.

And by the way, there have been rumors that Nokia is prototyping their own touch screen phone, called the Aeon. So it will be interesting to see what the playing field will look like a year from now. There apparently is suppose to be a Prada version of the LG phone coming out this April.

Check out the video (sorry, it's in French, but at least it demos what it's capable of. Anyone want to translate?).

Exercise with the Wii

If you didn't believe me before that one of the benefits of owning a Wii is actually losing weight, here's proof. This guy did an experiment where by he played Wii Sports for 30 minutes a day for six weeks, did nothing else outside of his regular routine, and lost 9 pounds! And to boot, he did this over the Christmas holidays. He even admitted to eating and drinking more than normal, cause well, that's what you do over Christmas. I'm actually quite impress that he tried to as scientific as possible to prove a point.

Now as impressive as this is, the real point here is that you must exercise to maintain a healthy weight. This man was by no means fat, and I wouldn't even have called him overweight in his "before" pictures. Also, to help lose weight, you need to start on a program and keep on it. We live in an instant gratification world, but losing weight takes time and dedication.

Travel insurance

This is a true story, and it happened to someone on Hitched. Click here for the story.

The moral is, never, never, NEVER leave the country without proper insurance, even if it's just a day trip down to the US. I've heard enough horror stories to know that you just don't do something that foolish.

Thinking that nothing will happen to you is reckless. The moment you set one toenail outside of the country, anything can happen to you. And without proper insurance, the thousands of dollars of medical bills, quite frankly, is the least of your worries.

KOOKY: Performance Review

Today is a good day. Not only did I get paid, but I had my performance review. My review was very favorable, but more importantly, I got a RAISE! And not just any ol' raise but a huge one!

Now I'm not going to try to explain the contract that our association has with UBC, and how people get salary increases, but I know that getting a 3% raise was already pretty good (by the way, I got more than that, but I won't say how much more as at least a couple of my colleagues read this blog); I certainly wasn't expecting to get that much. If you can decipher our salary grid and explain to me (yet again) how all this works, I still won't get it. The bottom line is that even if my manager wanted to give me gobs of money, he couldn't as it just doesn't work that way; he simply doesn't get the money from HR to do so.

In addition to the complex nature of the salaries, my manager and director couldn't even tell me what my new salary level would be because, they simply just don't know. The University and probably HR are still trying to figure out exactly how everything is suppose to work from the grievance settlement from last month, so our salary grid's suppose to shift, and I may get even more money. Maybe. It depends largely on where I sit on the scale, but on other thing too.

See, complicated.

My director did warn me that I may or may not (probably somewhat unlikely) see that sort of increase again, unless I move up the pay scale by getting a promotion or something similar. Again, the system doesn't work in favour of giving people large increases. But that's okay. It was already more than I had expected, so I'm okay with that.

When in an accident...

Today at lunch, one of the people I was sitting with works for the provincial automobile insurance corporation as an adjuster. In other words, he's the one processing the accident claim.

A good part of his job requires that he talk to the parties in the accident to ascertain what has happened. I'm certain he's heard about every cock-and-bull story about 100 times over as he's been doing this for many years. He's certainly picked up a knack for picking out people who are trying to lie their way out of a at-fault accident.

So while we were having lunch, I got some really good tips as to what to do when you're involved in an accident. And he actually recommended that you do them in this order:

1. Find a witness and get his/her name and phone number right away. Witnesses don't need to be around for the rest of the time, and you can certainly put them in contact with the insurance company later on. (However, a witness isn't necessary if you're at fault; you certainly don't need help digging your hole, ha).
2. Write down the other person(s) license plates. A quick way is to take pictures with a digital camera or a cell phone camera. This is a good idea especially if the police is involved. You will need this information as the insurance company typically don't get the police report, and to request one will take a long time. The insurance company can track the other person down much faster if you have a least a license plate number.
3. Make sure you write down the important information from the other people, and don't let someone write their information and give it to you. That person may give you bogus information. My friend has seen this happen to people, and they are usually out of luck if this happens.
   

My Head Hurts

I've been trying to figure out how much money I need to put into my RRSP to not pay any more tax to the government come Income Tax time. The formulation is more complicated this time around as I started contributing to a pension last year. I don't know if my Pension Adjustment will apply to my allotted amount for 2006 or 2007. It's all so confusing.

I ran across this article about Canadians dipping into their RRSPs. There are those who use some of their RRSPs funds for Home Buyer's Plan or the Life Long Learning Plan. While I wouldn't want to use the RRSP funds myself for those purposes (my reason is below), I can understand why some people do.

However, I don't think a lot of people even know how much they need to save up for retirement. In theory, your expenses should be down because you've paid off your mortgage and other debt and the kids are out of the house. You may have even downsized the house.

I can tell you that as time goes on, these assumptions becomes less and less true. My own parents (one whom is already retired and the other on the cusp of early retirement) still have a mortgage. Many people who are near or at retirement are finding that their kids are moving back in for whatever reason. And my parents certainly didn't downsize.

And while some expenses have theoretically decreased, others have increased. For instance, now that my dad is no longer working, so he normally wouldn't qualify for medical benefits from an insurance company (or it would be quite difficult to get affordable extended medical insurance with at his age and level of health). Luckily for him, his former employer's insurance company allows retirees to continue on with a reduced medical plan. Sure, my dad has to pay more for health care, but it's still a darn sight better than nothing. His plan already covers a lot of the meds that he has to take. Similarly, what happens if you have to do a major house repair, or hip replacement? Where are the funds going to come from?

Using this calculator, if I retire at 65 and die at 85, even calculating at 70% of my current income, the amount that I will need to save by retirement is a whopping $1,925,061.87 (no I didn't accidentally put in extra zeros! And I think it's a low amount). Even if we still have CPP, OAS and the company pension to live on, it's still a lot of money to sock away. Which is why I choose to keep money in the RRSP in order to take advantage of the tax-deferred growth rather than withdraw the money before I need to, even for noble causes like Homebuyer's or education.

But, nothing is ever cut and dry. Take a gander at this discussion thread and this article about following retirement calculator advice. While I don't think I really need that much saved up for retirement, the reality is that it's definitely more than I think it will be. It certainly is a wake-up call, and will make me think twice about withdrawing funds from my RRSP.

However, moderation is key. There is no sense in not enjoying life now (the "cat food analogy" from the last article). It's really a matter of finding balance.

But first things first, I need to have my financial planner tell me how much I should put into my RRSP to avoid the tax man. Bah!

Note on car

Just in case you can't read the note, click on the picture for a larger view. [Source]

Mobile Web

I read this article which commented on how the next wave of the Internet will be Mobile Web. Basically, it states that people will be doing more Internet surfing on a smart phone than on a PC.

The cell phone makers certainly know that this going to be a big thing, so they are going to do all they can to help it along. The other day, I was at a Blackberry demo (the sales guy was showing a pretty cool device that will allow you to hook your Blackberry to a projector to show Power Point presentations, it was pretty cool, much better than lugging around a laptop) and the sales guys had mentioned that in 2007 and 2008, RIM will be releasing smart phones with higher download speeds, to help boost the abilities of mobile web.

I personally am all for it. There have been times when I had to find information, and wished that I had the ability to find that information while out and about. Or if I'm not at my PC, I would like to be able to purchase something online when I want, and not have to wait. Better use of my time, I have to say.

I have a smart phone that is ready for Mobile Web. It's got a Opera browser that I've been itching to try out for some time now. So what's holding me back?

The article says it quite well.

One of the biggest obstacles to mass adoption of the wireless Internet remains the high rates phone companies are charging, especially in Canada.

Let's face it, I refuse to pay $45 per month for 0.5MB of data, and this is on top of my regular monthly cell phone plan. Considering that many files, including Internet pages, are much larger that this, my monthly allotted usage would be gone in a blink of an eye. Or more realistically, Rogers (my carrier) would start charging me for the extra data packet used.

I really don't like the fact that Canadians have this culture where they are always slow to embrace new technology, and the high prices are certainly not helping. So to Rogers, and all the other Canadian carriers out there, get with the program, and lower your prices if you want people to start using it. I'm a willing participant, but I would like to get more value for my money.

Apple iPhone(?)

• It has Wi-Fi & Bluetooth capabilities
• It does have a wider screen that will allow for better viewing (of whatever you're looking at)
• It does make good use of screen real-estate by removing the buttons

What I'm not so hot on:

• It still seems too big
• It has no memory card slot (I betcha version 2.0 will have one!)
• If you look past the eye candy, it really isn't that that different from other smart phones.
  
• Relying solely on a touch screen, your biggest single point of failure is the screen itself. Once it's damaged, you need to replace the phone.
• Other points of failure: you can't replace the battery (just like in an iPod) and I couldn't find any evidence that you could take the SIM card out and put it into another phone. (This phone is only designed for GSM networks as it uses EDGE technology).

I guess we will just have to wait and see...

Resigned...

I've let go of the thing that was bothering me at work, I have no control over it anyways, so no sense in stressing out about it.

The school thing, well, I have to accept that while I have some control over things, I don't have that much control over that either. So I have to let go of certain things as well and have faith that it will still end on time.

And it's snowing and really windy. Again. Yay.

I'm just going to go to bed now.

Annoyed

I'm a little annoyed at my project clients again. And slightly annoyed at something at work. Don't talk to me right now.