The word of the week is anticipation!
Aug 1st - What Holiday Is That Again?
It's BC Day here in British Columbia, a holiday that no other province in Canada shares. Having the day off was nice, as I slept in and got quite a few things done around the place that I'd not had a full day to attend to - including tossing a whole lot of old papers that I'd no idea I'd held into. I like having a unique holiday, especially as it means an extra day off with pay - did you know that PEI has Islander Day as an official holiday in February? Check out the LIST OF HOLIDAYS and plan out the remainder of your paid days off for 2011; I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving myself in October, as it has a bonus of TURKEY on top of holiday pay. Sweet deal, pass the gravy please!
Aug 2 - What Is Life About?
We've all heard sayings like 'The Best Things In Life Are Free' and 'The Simple Things In Life Are Best' - right? I've mentioned previously in this blog about 1000 Awesome Things, and there's also 30 Of The Most Satisfying Simple Pleasures Life Has To Offer which is a rather long hedonistic title, I have to say. Yet the picture below that I found this week on FBook really sums a lot of those things up... and it's common-sense all the way. Read and enjoy:
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| Life.jpg by Monty Winters |
Aug 3 - Work Said WHAT? Really? No, REALLY?
aka PINCH ME - I must be dreaming!
Today was a shocker. A total surprise I never thought I'd see. Work called in ALL the managers from Vancouver Island and sat us all down in the very post conference room at Head Office. Present at the meeting was the new VP of BC operations and a whole lot of other bigwigs... and they were all there to say there were sorry. Yes, that's right: they said they had treated ALL of us badly and were hell-bent now on making things right. All of we managers there were stunned and kept pinching ourselves for the SIX HOURS that we were there, as the brass outlined how they were going to bring things back on track with OUR help. They didn't promise that it'd be easy or quick, but that they wanted to do ALL they could to make working for our company a positive and fun experience - contrary to the mess it's become for the last long, long while. By the time the day was done, I'd say they'd addressed about 80% of my major concerns, things that I'd thought would NEVER change or that I would NEVER even see addressed in my time with the company. I wasn't quite singing and skipping when I left, but I DID see things with a hopeful light that I had never, EVER thought I would just a day ago. So I'm pausing in my look for other work to see if my company truly is going to walk the walk, to truly listen to constructive criticism from its managers and to make a solid effort to become a workplace I might actually want to turn up to every day. Quite a revelation today, I have to say!!!!!
It's a start. I slept very well, for the first time in months, hopeful about keeping my job. And maybe, finally, turning it into a career.
Aug 4 - My New Card's Defective?
Oh, the woe... my new video card has been glitching randomly. And not just any glitch, it's the dreaded 'Hyper Transport Sync Flood Error' - which in plain English means the computer hard crashes itself from windows back to a boot screen. Which really sucks and is BAD for it. So far I've had about a dozen such crashes while I've been researching solutions, but it's one of those random hard-to-track-down glitches. Typically, Sapphire tech support is of no help, but they're trying... I just don't want to have to return the card for 'repairs' that won't fix some odd incompatibility with my motherboard make / model. And yes, I know - if I had an Apple, I wouldn't have these problems - but I can't afford an Apple that I'd be happy with in terms of speed / specs. So I'll just have to bandage my bleeding from being cutting-edge and man up.
Or just return the damn card next week before I leave and pop in the one that ran just fine. If slowly.
Aug 5 - Who You Gonna Call?
One thing that the new video card could do was punch up the visual levels of The Real Ghostbusters game that's been languishing on my PC. With heavy graphical muscle finally available, the game really shines with effects and details. I admit to being a huge Ghostbusters fan since it first came out in 1984( and I was still a kid! )and I just loved the tech gadgets in the film. I've always wanted to make up a Ghostbusters costume, but I'd have to do it right and that's just darn expensive. However, something's coming out in the fall that will make it a bit cheaper: a Ghost Trap with lights, sounds and even movement, from Mattel! That's just damn cool, really; imagine what it'd be like if we had holographic tech of any kind right now. You'd be able to scare the living daylights out of people with the push of a button! Hrmmm....
I am still thinking about going out this Halloween as this though.
Aug 6 - How Long Is My Break Again?
A very long day at work today( again )for a total of 10.5 hours of Busy. At least I had help; my new trainee was there for 6 hours and she's quite good for someone with a month's training... but she's not fast enough yet, so I ended up serving the majority of customers to keep things moving. One thing about my workplace regarding breaks: you can take one whenever you want( but not too many, lazybones! )instead of taking an unpaid 30-min break as required by law. Which has meant over the last decade I've worked there that 'set' breaks always turn into collections of 5 minutes snatched as you can between customers and phone calls when you're the only person working. At least today I managed to get in most of a 30 minute late lunch, though again I still had to field a few trainee questions and grab the phone when she was too busy. Appealing to Head Office for 0.50 more staff always turns into a diatribe of how our revenue isn't high enough to support that... the usual. At least they're now open to discussing the matter in-depth, compared to even a week ago - so that's something.
Aug 7 - Going Ape?
Last night I saw the reboot an old franchise Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. Now, I have to say that that hoary old series of films was a staple of my Saturday afternoon TV habits as a kid; I must have seen each one dozens of times over the years, albeit in parts some days. It had everything I liked: talking apes, old technology and nuclear apocalypse all rolled into one. I could have done without Charlton Heston, but he played the rugged selfish survivalist well enough so I can't fault him for the part really. Back to the reboot: I liked the movie, which surprised me. It was well-written, moving, had lots of cutting-edge special effects and incorporated Andy Serkis( he of Gollum fame from the recent LOTR films )into the package. The action was a little sparse and some things defied believability( HOW many apes are there in San Franscisco, anyway? )but overall it kept me interested for most of the film... despite there being no nuclear apocalypse - though there WAS something similar, at the end. Made my rather dull( in a nice way )day today rather bearable, as I finished off a review for a teller at home after work and put myself to bed with dreams of trees and sun and ... bananas?
I'm on vacation this week starting Friday AM... it's been a LONG time in coming. Yay!
