The word of the week is anticipation...
Sept 12 - Week-long Homework
All this week, I've spent my free time building up a training plan for all of BC as part of my interview for an internal job posting as Regional Trainer for BC. The interview's on Sept 16th, so I've put together a 7-page plan outlining all the things that would need to be put into place to make it happen. I don't have any training in training( hmmm... )so I've had to pull in a lot of resources from the 'net, such as ManagementHelp.org. I found that there's a lot of 'soft-talk' but very little free guidance as to the nuts and bolts of training plans / scenarios out there for the layman. Must be why HR and training companies make so much money; they keep their industry cards close to their chest. Still, I've come up with what I believe is a solid plan, so I'll keep refining it every chance I get until this Friday.
Sept 13 - Growing Old
Being alone has been on my mind more of late, which is natural given where I am in life and not having had a lot of time( or emotional space )for commitment( that scary word )until recently this year. I've wondered, as we all have, if there's anyone out there for me... really, truly 'The One' as I'm not the sort to settle for someone 'sort of right' and try to make things work in an uphill battle - no thanks. Seeing this video below gave me hope that spending multi-decades with the same person won't be a ball-and-chain experience, but rather a walk hand-in-hand through an ever-changing journey of discovery and delight. Or it could just be based on laughs and plain old funny:
Sept 14 - Hiding from WiFi
Back in the day, the movie Johnny Mnemonic explored the world of cyberpunk, where people have electronics buried in their bodies and the world is a scary place, thanks to Keanu Reeves. The movie centered around a fictional disease called NAS( Nerve Attenuation Syndrome )which was a result of electronic overload from the massive 'radio wave bath' we all invisibly wander through each day. Which actually leads into real life, as some people have now developed a hyper-sensitivity to WiFi, which bathes us all in radio waves we can't see... but you can see the connection. These poor souls have fled to a place in West Virginia, where there is a 'radio wave refuge' that has inadvertently been created for the use of radio-based astronomy in conjunction with some US Military research bases. Which kinda makes you wonder about these radio waves we're all bathing in...
Sept 15 - Is that you, Jar-Jar?
I like funny, especially funny voices and voices that can imitate 'famous' voices. When I saw this clip, I immediately tried to do a few of these voices... but failed miserably. Of them all, would you believe Han Solo is the hardest to get right on the nose? Have a listen with your eyes closed and see if you can pick out which voice is being done, and remember there's a second clip linked to on the YouTube page - just click the YouTube logo on the video window:
Sept 16 - Internal Job Interview!
Today I had my interview for the position of Regional Trainer for BC at 10am. I went into Victoria early JUST in case the highway was backed up, which didn't happen, thankfully. The interview went for well over an hour, where I presented my plan for training all of BC - the head of HR didn't pick it apart too much, which was good. She asked some pointed questions about how I would handle some situations, which I answered as best I could and with confidence; the job would definitely involve a lot of tracking progress, as well as poking people with sticks to ensure priority is given to completing training modules on-time. I thought the interview went very well and I'll find out about it next week - I'll be on tenterhooks until then, as they won't tell me diddly until the 'yes' or 'no.' If it's no, well... I'm definitely outta here ASAP. If yes, then I'll be bucking for a raise for SURE, otherwise they can find some other sucker; I've been there too long and seen too much to be paid on the cheap for my experience!
Sept 17 - Star Control and Mechs
Hrm, I haven't mentioned games in a while... so how about two that I remember quite fondly from my high-school days - yes, THAT long ago. Apart from the ubiquitous D&D, I also played a tabletop pen-and-paper game called BattleTech. It was a mech-based heaxagonal-map combat game with little miniatures and half the fun was coming up with mech designs that kicked ass. It's been brought intact into the Internet Age for free in the form of MegaMek, which is a community-created freeware game... sans the fancy real-time graphics of the Mechwarrior game series that I also enjoyed. The other game I fondly recall is StarControlII, which doesn't work that well on modern PC's, so again the community came up with a freeware clone: The Ur-Quan Masters. This was a great little game that had the distinction of being FUN with two-players; I actually played it on a friend's 386( pre-Pentium! )and it was a blast, literally. The game's premise is simple: each alien race has a ship with unique powers that will be used to blast the other alien's ship to bits. Let the battle begin!
Sept 18 - Sunday Party? Sure!
Working all weekend isn't as bad as for me as it might be for others; I don't have free time 'blocked' into just weekends like some folks who are 9-5 weekdays, so that's nice. It might wear on you a little though if those selfsame people ARE doing something on the weekend... and you're working. But those are the breaks; at least I can plan ahead and reschedule if need be - a benefit of being the guy who writes the schedule, in the end. Though it hasn't come up more than a couple of times while in BC, to be honest. Today after work I did attend a party for a co-worker, who found out this week she will be attending the 2012 Olympics in New Zealand, which is pretty special. I don't believe I know any other Olympians, so that's cool too... I'm so far from being athletic it's sad, but I don't have the extra padding anymore to really drive the point home. Sadly, at the party, all we did was talk about work as about half the people there were also co-workers... and the other half of the people took over the kitchen. Which is also SOP... the stories were really good though, as they always are - it's never boring most days, which is one of the few good points about my current employment. Which might change next week - stay tuned!
I've been reading Uncle John's Unsinkable Bathroom Reader that was given to me by friends( thanks Josh & Mandy! )and it's MUCH better than I thought it was. It's like a little fact-based slice of trivia in your hand, with each book in the series covering all sorts of topics in its 500+ pages. I'd definitely encourage people to pick up the series; you'll feel smarter after spending a little time parked with Uncle John in the privvy...
Sept 12 - Week-long Homework
All this week, I've spent my free time building up a training plan for all of BC as part of my interview for an internal job posting as Regional Trainer for BC. The interview's on Sept 16th, so I've put together a 7-page plan outlining all the things that would need to be put into place to make it happen. I don't have any training in training( hmmm... )so I've had to pull in a lot of resources from the 'net, such as ManagementHelp.org. I found that there's a lot of 'soft-talk' but very little free guidance as to the nuts and bolts of training plans / scenarios out there for the layman. Must be why HR and training companies make so much money; they keep their industry cards close to their chest. Still, I've come up with what I believe is a solid plan, so I'll keep refining it every chance I get until this Friday.
Sept 13 - Growing Old
Being alone has been on my mind more of late, which is natural given where I am in life and not having had a lot of time( or emotional space )for commitment( that scary word )until recently this year. I've wondered, as we all have, if there's anyone out there for me... really, truly 'The One' as I'm not the sort to settle for someone 'sort of right' and try to make things work in an uphill battle - no thanks. Seeing this video below gave me hope that spending multi-decades with the same person won't be a ball-and-chain experience, but rather a walk hand-in-hand through an ever-changing journey of discovery and delight. Or it could just be based on laughs and plain old funny:
Sept 14 - Hiding from WiFi
Back in the day, the movie Johnny Mnemonic explored the world of cyberpunk, where people have electronics buried in their bodies and the world is a scary place, thanks to Keanu Reeves. The movie centered around a fictional disease called NAS( Nerve Attenuation Syndrome )which was a result of electronic overload from the massive 'radio wave bath' we all invisibly wander through each day. Which actually leads into real life, as some people have now developed a hyper-sensitivity to WiFi, which bathes us all in radio waves we can't see... but you can see the connection. These poor souls have fled to a place in West Virginia, where there is a 'radio wave refuge' that has inadvertently been created for the use of radio-based astronomy in conjunction with some US Military research bases. Which kinda makes you wonder about these radio waves we're all bathing in...
Sept 15 - Is that you, Jar-Jar?
I like funny, especially funny voices and voices that can imitate 'famous' voices. When I saw this clip, I immediately tried to do a few of these voices... but failed miserably. Of them all, would you believe Han Solo is the hardest to get right on the nose? Have a listen with your eyes closed and see if you can pick out which voice is being done, and remember there's a second clip linked to on the YouTube page - just click the YouTube logo on the video window:
Sept 16 - Internal Job Interview!
Today I had my interview for the position of Regional Trainer for BC at 10am. I went into Victoria early JUST in case the highway was backed up, which didn't happen, thankfully. The interview went for well over an hour, where I presented my plan for training all of BC - the head of HR didn't pick it apart too much, which was good. She asked some pointed questions about how I would handle some situations, which I answered as best I could and with confidence; the job would definitely involve a lot of tracking progress, as well as poking people with sticks to ensure priority is given to completing training modules on-time. I thought the interview went very well and I'll find out about it next week - I'll be on tenterhooks until then, as they won't tell me diddly until the 'yes' or 'no.' If it's no, well... I'm definitely outta here ASAP. If yes, then I'll be bucking for a raise for SURE, otherwise they can find some other sucker; I've been there too long and seen too much to be paid on the cheap for my experience!
Sept 17 - Star Control and Mechs
Hrm, I haven't mentioned games in a while... so how about two that I remember quite fondly from my high-school days - yes, THAT long ago. Apart from the ubiquitous D&D, I also played a tabletop pen-and-paper game called BattleTech. It was a mech-based heaxagonal-map combat game with little miniatures and half the fun was coming up with mech designs that kicked ass. It's been brought intact into the Internet Age for free in the form of MegaMek, which is a community-created freeware game... sans the fancy real-time graphics of the Mechwarrior game series that I also enjoyed. The other game I fondly recall is StarControlII, which doesn't work that well on modern PC's, so again the community came up with a freeware clone: The Ur-Quan Masters. This was a great little game that had the distinction of being FUN with two-players; I actually played it on a friend's 386( pre-Pentium! )and it was a blast, literally. The game's premise is simple: each alien race has a ship with unique powers that will be used to blast the other alien's ship to bits. Let the battle begin!
Sept 18 - Sunday Party? Sure!
Working all weekend isn't as bad as for me as it might be for others; I don't have free time 'blocked' into just weekends like some folks who are 9-5 weekdays, so that's nice. It might wear on you a little though if those selfsame people ARE doing something on the weekend... and you're working. But those are the breaks; at least I can plan ahead and reschedule if need be - a benefit of being the guy who writes the schedule, in the end. Though it hasn't come up more than a couple of times while in BC, to be honest. Today after work I did attend a party for a co-worker, who found out this week she will be attending the 2012 Olympics in New Zealand, which is pretty special. I don't believe I know any other Olympians, so that's cool too... I'm so far from being athletic it's sad, but I don't have the extra padding anymore to really drive the point home. Sadly, at the party, all we did was talk about work as about half the people there were also co-workers... and the other half of the people took over the kitchen. Which is also SOP... the stories were really good though, as they always are - it's never boring most days, which is one of the few good points about my current employment. Which might change next week - stay tuned!
I've been reading Uncle John's Unsinkable Bathroom Reader that was given to me by friends( thanks Josh & Mandy! )and it's MUCH better than I thought it was. It's like a little fact-based slice of trivia in your hand, with each book in the series covering all sorts of topics in its 500+ pages. I'd definitely encourage people to pick up the series; you'll feel smarter after spending a little time parked with Uncle John in the privvy...
