The word of the week is finality.
Jan 23 - So close, so close...
Okay, I'll admit it: I'm scared of the next few months. Just like I was scared when I had to move on with life after my parent's bankruptcy, and I was especially when I packed up my family and moved across the country to BC in late 2007.
Now I've purposefully made myself jobless, to remove myself from the soul-and-body killing stress of MMart. I wish I could have already had a new job to segue nicely into, but that just didn't happen despite my looking.
Yet I'm fine with that; I've planned accordingly to ensure that my finances can support me for a few months, or hopefully the best case scenario of EI kicking in for a few months will work out. Either way, I will have TIME OFF to get my head clear, my health stabilized and my creativity given the freedom it needs to get working on my writing again, at long last. My family is taken care of and I can finally focus just on ME this year - to find the path I WANT to walk, instead of letting NEED steer me into the darker places I've feared for so long. No more; now I will make my own light and begin to shine again.
Jan 24 - Quote Me!
Do you misuse quotes or worse, just misquote in general? I try to avoid using quotes, as I tend to feel that I'm trying to make myself seem smarter by quoting someone else. Being quietly proud of my own ability to spout wisdom when needed, I'd rather not have to depend on others to make myself seem intelligent. BUT, that doesn't mean you should ignore the wisdom of a good quote; far from it! The whole REASON people use quotes is because quotes ARE wisdom distilled; similar to truisms, quotes get a point across in as minimal a space as possible, with the source lending great weight to the point. Have a look at QuotationsBook.com as a starting place to find worthy quotes; the internet is FULL of sites that offer quotes, so you can spend as much time as you like adding to your wisdom with only a mouse-click.
Jan 25 - NEW SMARTPHONE ARRIVES!
Yes, I finally did it: I bought a new phone. Well, a new USED phone, but a lot newer than the one I've had since late 2007. It's the HTC Desire HD and I love it! I just couldn't wait for the price to drop on a new one from Telus and I did NOT want to sign a 2-year contract to get one for $0.00, so I sourced one on eBay that had ALL the trimmings and put in a bid. Which I WON for $200!! Considering that NEW HTC Desire HD's are going for $499.99 and even the used ones on eBay were averaging around $350 final sale prices, I did VERY well! More about the phone in a future blog entry, as I've been busy just installing apps( shared between my TF101 tablet! )and getting used to having a touchscreen smartphone again( since my pokey iPhone 3G died last year ). Check out the pic below for the size comparison, with a pen tossed in for reference:
If you're wondering how BIG all these smartphones are, there's a website that can compare them for you called Phone-Size.com - go have a look. I have to say that though the HTC Desire HD has a HUGE screen, it doesn't feel so large in the hand as to be awkward. I like the sizable real-estate, as I don't have to hold it too close to my face to see what I need to. It's just perfect!
Jan 26 - Anxiety Chest Pains, Explained
Back in November 1st 2011, I went to the hospital with chest pains. Thankfully, the doctors ruled out any cardiac issues, so I've been researching ever since as to what other causes there might be for my symptoms. I have now found it: ACP, which stands for Anxiety Chest Pains. Seems that these are related to stress / panic attacks, where the heart is worked too hard due to the release of adrenalin and it results in painful muscle spasms. Which can be VERY frightening to someone like myself who has never had chest pains prior to this.
Thankfully I've found that the research suggests if you reduce your stress, the chest pains will not reoccur - they are symptoms that manifest only during periods of extreme stress. So my decision to leave MMart has definitely helped, as has my conscious decisions NOT to stress at ALL over ANY work-related items in the last two months. I'm going to move onwards and get some solid exercise routines in, as well as exploring other stress-reducers such as meditation and related disciplines. Just writing my morning haiku has proven to be very effective in helping me focus for the day, to rid myself of thoughts that won't go away. I'll see how well I can focus these energies into creative projects in the next year too!
Jan 23 - So close, so close...
Okay, I'll admit it: I'm scared of the next few months. Just like I was scared when I had to move on with life after my parent's bankruptcy, and I was especially when I packed up my family and moved across the country to BC in late 2007.
Now I've purposefully made myself jobless, to remove myself from the soul-and-body killing stress of MMart. I wish I could have already had a new job to segue nicely into, but that just didn't happen despite my looking.
Yet I'm fine with that; I've planned accordingly to ensure that my finances can support me for a few months, or hopefully the best case scenario of EI kicking in for a few months will work out. Either way, I will have TIME OFF to get my head clear, my health stabilized and my creativity given the freedom it needs to get working on my writing again, at long last. My family is taken care of and I can finally focus just on ME this year - to find the path I WANT to walk, instead of letting NEED steer me into the darker places I've feared for so long. No more; now I will make my own light and begin to shine again.
Jan 24 - Quote Me!
Do you misuse quotes or worse, just misquote in general? I try to avoid using quotes, as I tend to feel that I'm trying to make myself seem smarter by quoting someone else. Being quietly proud of my own ability to spout wisdom when needed, I'd rather not have to depend on others to make myself seem intelligent. BUT, that doesn't mean you should ignore the wisdom of a good quote; far from it! The whole REASON people use quotes is because quotes ARE wisdom distilled; similar to truisms, quotes get a point across in as minimal a space as possible, with the source lending great weight to the point. Have a look at QuotationsBook.com as a starting place to find worthy quotes; the internet is FULL of sites that offer quotes, so you can spend as much time as you like adding to your wisdom with only a mouse-click.
Jan 25 - NEW SMARTPHONE ARRIVES!
Yes, I finally did it: I bought a new phone. Well, a new USED phone, but a lot newer than the one I've had since late 2007. It's the HTC Desire HD and I love it! I just couldn't wait for the price to drop on a new one from Telus and I did NOT want to sign a 2-year contract to get one for $0.00, so I sourced one on eBay that had ALL the trimmings and put in a bid. Which I WON for $200!! Considering that NEW HTC Desire HD's are going for $499.99 and even the used ones on eBay were averaging around $350 final sale prices, I did VERY well! More about the phone in a future blog entry, as I've been busy just installing apps( shared between my TF101 tablet! )and getting used to having a touchscreen smartphone again( since my pokey iPhone 3G died last year ). Check out the pic below for the size comparison, with a pen tossed in for reference:
If you're wondering how BIG all these smartphones are, there's a website that can compare them for you called Phone-Size.com - go have a look. I have to say that though the HTC Desire HD has a HUGE screen, it doesn't feel so large in the hand as to be awkward. I like the sizable real-estate, as I don't have to hold it too close to my face to see what I need to. It's just perfect!
Jan 26 - Anxiety Chest Pains, Explained
Back in November 1st 2011, I went to the hospital with chest pains. Thankfully, the doctors ruled out any cardiac issues, so I've been researching ever since as to what other causes there might be for my symptoms. I have now found it: ACP, which stands for Anxiety Chest Pains. Seems that these are related to stress / panic attacks, where the heart is worked too hard due to the release of adrenalin and it results in painful muscle spasms. Which can be VERY frightening to someone like myself who has never had chest pains prior to this.
Thankfully I've found that the research suggests if you reduce your stress, the chest pains will not reoccur - they are symptoms that manifest only during periods of extreme stress. So my decision to leave MMart has definitely helped, as has my conscious decisions NOT to stress at ALL over ANY work-related items in the last two months. I'm going to move onwards and get some solid exercise routines in, as well as exploring other stress-reducers such as meditation and related disciplines. Just writing my morning haiku has proven to be very effective in helping me focus for the day, to rid myself of thoughts that won't go away. I'll see how well I can focus these energies into creative projects in the next year too!
Jan 27 - The Last Busy Friday EVER
It was my LAST busy / insane / idiotically crazy day at work today. No more shall I have to run around at breakneck speed for over seven hours with a five minute break for lunch as people poured into the lobby with only one other new staff member to assist me... after two hours alone. No more will I juggle the phone that never stopped ringing or eyed the people sitting at the Tim Horton's twenty feet away with envy as they enjoyed their day( soon! ). Never again will I leave hours after I was supposed to, pushing through a lobby full of far too many customers for just two CSR's to serve in a 'fully staffed' branch - NO MORE.
For the next few months at least, my Fridays will be spent as I WANT them to be: relaxing, exercising, socializing, entertaining or anything else OTHER than working at a speed that would leave most ANYONE else shaking their heads. I'll probably spend at least ONE end of month Friday sitting in that SAME Tim Horton's window for a few hours, watching during the busiest time of the day and smiling as -I- sip a coffee, relaxing and enjoying MY day as I want it to be.
Jan 28 - Wastelander Panda
It's not often that I laugh while watching post-apocalyptic films that are serious, but I did for this one - once, at the beginning. Then it got good; check this article:
Wastelander Panda Gleefully Blends Pandas And Post-Apocalypse Action
Mike Thompson | 27 January 2012 2:50 pm
You know you're in for a good time when you've got a panda bear wandering the wasteland, swinging a machete.
Let's be honest about something: Pandas probably don't sit too high up on your list of who's going to survive the apocalypse. That may change after you watch this trailer for Wastelander Panda, which seems to be channelling Mad Max, Kung Fu Panda and The Book of Eli.
The trailer was created by Epic Films, an independent film group out of Australia. According to the company's description, this is the prologue for a TV series it's currently in the process of developing, but further details are pretty hard to find at the moment.
If this video featured a regular dude making his way through the wasteland, I'm not sure I'd be quite so entertained by it. Sure, the photography is lovely anyway, and the voice-over is nice, but the presence of an anthropomorphic panda bear is what really crafts the mystery that you want to investigate.
Source: Epic Films via Geeks Are Sexy
Jan 29 - (non-)Work Party II !!
Most of my morning today on my day off was spent finishing up my Departure Document, which is my 'sendoff' to MMart that's a dozen pages long. I've written it mainly for myself, so I can set down MOST of the things that have bothered me over the years into a single, cohesive document and so rid my mind of them - healthy, I think. I've been fairly objective about it, as there's no point in being bitter; all of the people who have caused me grief over the years have already left the company, so there's nobody left to spite.
The REAL highlight today was in the evening, when I went out to the Station House here in Langford for a PARTY. Seems everyone from work was VERY disappointed with the lackluster atmosphere of the company party last week and wanted to give me a REAL sendoff, so they organized everyone to meet tonight for some true celebrating - it really touched my heart to hear that!!!
The Station House was quiet tonight; I arrived around 7pm and waited a few minutes before the first people arrived. About an hour later everyone was there, less than a dozen all told but all there to have a good time among friends. Food was ordered, beer and Pink Pussycats were delivered and great conversation battled with odd reminiscences as we all sought to outdo each other in tales both gross and genuinely funny. People had to leave until at the last it was Sam, Courtney and myself closing down the place, along with the bar staff and the bar dog named Rutger. It was emotional for me, as these were people that really cared about me, enough so to spend a Sunday evening buying me drinks - thanks to my divorced Work Wife and my Beer Coach for a perfect, wonderful evening!!!
I thought about mentioning the Lego Man space triumph that happened this week, but everyone's probably heard about it by now. Very cool still; today was probably the latest blog update I've had that wasn't an early-AM Monday posting. Whew!
Two more days to go - as of 4:30pm PST on Jan 31st 2012, I will no longer work for MMart.
My future awaits.
Most of my morning today on my day off was spent finishing up my Departure Document, which is my 'sendoff' to MMart that's a dozen pages long. I've written it mainly for myself, so I can set down MOST of the things that have bothered me over the years into a single, cohesive document and so rid my mind of them - healthy, I think. I've been fairly objective about it, as there's no point in being bitter; all of the people who have caused me grief over the years have already left the company, so there's nobody left to spite.
The REAL highlight today was in the evening, when I went out to the Station House here in Langford for a PARTY. Seems everyone from work was VERY disappointed with the lackluster atmosphere of the company party last week and wanted to give me a REAL sendoff, so they organized everyone to meet tonight for some true celebrating - it really touched my heart to hear that!!!
The Station House was quiet tonight; I arrived around 7pm and waited a few minutes before the first people arrived. About an hour later everyone was there, less than a dozen all told but all there to have a good time among friends. Food was ordered, beer and Pink Pussycats were delivered and great conversation battled with odd reminiscences as we all sought to outdo each other in tales both gross and genuinely funny. People had to leave until at the last it was Sam, Courtney and myself closing down the place, along with the bar staff and the bar dog named Rutger. It was emotional for me, as these were people that really cared about me, enough so to spend a Sunday evening buying me drinks - thanks to my divorced Work Wife and my Beer Coach for a perfect, wonderful evening!!!
I thought about mentioning the Lego Man space triumph that happened this week, but everyone's probably heard about it by now. Very cool still; today was probably the latest blog update I've had that wasn't an early-AM Monday posting. Whew!
Two more days to go - as of 4:30pm PST on Jan 31st 2012, I will no longer work for MMart.
My future awaits.
