The word of the week is freedom!!!!!!!
--> I will go on just a little a bit in this week's blog entry, not trying to repeat myself, but more to release all that's left of what I've been holding in for many years. Freedom.
Jan 30 - Rate My Employer!
An odd feeling, going into work today, knowing it was the LAST time I would be closing MY branch. I've been doing it for so long that it's second nature to me to go through the steps( at breakneck speed )to get out on time... but I was in no hurry today yet I finished on time - strange, since my mind wasn't really on it. No, I walked out into the night air feeling odd, like I was leaving my apartment for the last time and feeling as though that was a GOOD thing, that I was leaving noisy neighbours behind to move on to a better place.
When I got home, I browsed the web a bit, looking for new employers, checking THEM out first before deciding to commit to any jobs. I came across a site I WISH had existed when I first started with MMart back in the day: RateMyEmployer.ca - where honest reviews of employers give YOU the inside information about what it's like to work there. Unsurprisingly, MMart rated an average of 1.5 stars - they'll never be on ANY 'Top 100' lists in a positive light, but will definitely help define 'bottom of the barrel' when it comes to most aspects of a workplace. I'm glad to be quit of them and saddened once again that I took me as long as it did to get my Exit Plan into full gear and get gone!
Jan 31 - The Sendoff: MY LAST DAY AT MMART
As though the world knew I was leaving today, it showed up at the front door to the branch and waited for me to open - by myself. As much as I had hoped last Friday was the last busy day I would have to endure at MMart, today was almost as busy; at least I had help in the form of a trainee after 10am, which kept things from being totally bonkers( barely ). I wasn't actually able to get the process of handing over the branch started until well after 2pm, just a few hours before the end of my shift. Tons of signoff lists, initials and so forth to ensure everything was in order and accounted for before I left. I even sent in my own termination papers after calling a few departments at head office to be absolutely certain they were properly filled out and sent to the tight people. As it turns out, we finished everything necessary a little after 4pm... so after handing over my keys and my manager's phone, I left without a backwards glance as the sun came out of the clouds and lit my way home.
It felt indescribably good.
Feb 1st - FREEDOM ACHIEVED
Darn it, but I didn't sleep well last night; my subconscious was obviously wrestling with something and didn't want to let me sleep in - I woke at 6am for some reason and drifted in a half-doze for a few more hours until 8am.
The morning of my freedom from the tyranny of a job I despised, at the end:
You have to love it when the cloudy skies of your life literally part( see the pic below! )and ALL you can see is sunshine, because of YOU choosing a path to a better place.
I think the universe just patted me on the back today and smiled... :-)
--> I will go on just a little a bit in this week's blog entry, not trying to repeat myself, but more to release all that's left of what I've been holding in for many years. Freedom.
Jan 30 - Rate My Employer!
An odd feeling, going into work today, knowing it was the LAST time I would be closing MY branch. I've been doing it for so long that it's second nature to me to go through the steps( at breakneck speed )to get out on time... but I was in no hurry today yet I finished on time - strange, since my mind wasn't really on it. No, I walked out into the night air feeling odd, like I was leaving my apartment for the last time and feeling as though that was a GOOD thing, that I was leaving noisy neighbours behind to move on to a better place.
When I got home, I browsed the web a bit, looking for new employers, checking THEM out first before deciding to commit to any jobs. I came across a site I WISH had existed when I first started with MMart back in the day: RateMyEmployer.ca - where honest reviews of employers give YOU the inside information about what it's like to work there. Unsurprisingly, MMart rated an average of 1.5 stars - they'll never be on ANY 'Top 100' lists in a positive light, but will definitely help define 'bottom of the barrel' when it comes to most aspects of a workplace. I'm glad to be quit of them and saddened once again that I took me as long as it did to get my Exit Plan into full gear and get gone!
Jan 31 - The Sendoff: MY LAST DAY AT MMART
As though the world knew I was leaving today, it showed up at the front door to the branch and waited for me to open - by myself. As much as I had hoped last Friday was the last busy day I would have to endure at MMart, today was almost as busy; at least I had help in the form of a trainee after 10am, which kept things from being totally bonkers( barely ). I wasn't actually able to get the process of handing over the branch started until well after 2pm, just a few hours before the end of my shift. Tons of signoff lists, initials and so forth to ensure everything was in order and accounted for before I left. I even sent in my own termination papers after calling a few departments at head office to be absolutely certain they were properly filled out and sent to the tight people. As it turns out, we finished everything necessary a little after 4pm... so after handing over my keys and my manager's phone, I left without a backwards glance as the sun came out of the clouds and lit my way home.
It felt indescribably good.
Feb 1st - FREEDOM ACHIEVED
Darn it, but I didn't sleep well last night; my subconscious was obviously wrestling with something and didn't want to let me sleep in - I woke at 6am for some reason and drifted in a half-doze for a few more hours until 8am.
The morning of my freedom from the tyranny of a job I despised, at the end:
Freedom starts today.
Even the weather agrees:
My future is bright!
Even the weather agrees:
My future is bright!
You have to love it when the cloudy skies of your life literally part( see the pic below! )and ALL you can see is sunshine, because of YOU choosing a path to a better place.
I think the universe just patted me on the back today and smiled... :-)
And what did I do with my day today? Whatever I wanted to. It was fantastic!!!
Feb 2 - Groundhog Day
Today is Groundhog Day( again )when people hope that a furry rodent will predict an early end to winter. This year, Phil predicted an EARLY spring - huzzah! Here in Victoria it’s been raining a LOT more than the white stuff, with the temp climbing into the low teens when the sun is out and hovering in the high single digits when it’s not. A few clouds here and there, along with definitely chilly nights... but I'd rather be here than anywhere else in Canada in regards to the weather last year!
As you may have also foreseen, I watched Groundhog Day in the evening tonight – that’s my tradition, and I like it. So do a lot of other people, as the writer of the movie mentions here. Also, there's a story about the weird time-loop that is the premise of the whole film: seems a bit was cut out that explained WHY it happened...
Feb 3 - Underworld Awakening in 3D
Off on a Friday, for the first time in years - brief vacations notwithstanding. I went out in the afternoon to see Underworld: Awakening in 3D IMAX at the Tillicum theatres; my buddy and I were one of only a dozen people there in the early afternoon, another advantage of NOT being confined to an evening or weekend show. It was like the theatre had been rented out to a select few; it certainly seemed MUCH louder without an audience to soak up the sound - holy subwoofer!
The movie itself was very dark visually; the story was all right( penned by my fave author / scriptwriter J. Michael Straczynski! )and the star of the film was of course the lovely Kate Beckinsale( who is but ten days younger than me! ). Svelte, sexy and sweetly savage, she always steals the show in my eyes with her velvet English accent delivering lines alongside a ton of kickass. Sure, it's a mindless romp... but nobody else could play the role of Selene as well as Kate has for three movies. I hope they don't make a fourth though. A trilogy is more than enough!
Of an evening, I fiddled around with a few things, in the main readying my PC for transferring the main drive to my new SSD that arrived today. I'm quite excited, as the 'hybrid' Seagate drive I currently have has failed to live up to my expectations of speed for a year. I'm eager to replace it with something that should be at LEAST five times faster, an SSD that I spotted a deal on last week( thanks RedFlagDeals! ): the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe. Incredibly, it's at the TOP of the performance charts at Tom's Hardware and I am STILL pinching myself that I got it for such a deal... less than a dollar a gig( before taxes and shipping, of course ): I've been waiting and watching EVERY day for a YEAR now for JUST such a deal to pop up, and I pounced when it did!
Feb 4 - Sunshine Weekend!
Saturday morning cartoons aren't what they used to be, so I skipped that and simply read a book in the lovely sunshine. I drove around for a bit, at a healthy lunch at the Jugo Juice in Victoria and people watched for a while. The day flew by as I stepped aside and let it happen, which is not at all lazy... mostly.
The evening was a bit frustrating, as I hadn't manage to convince my new SSD drive to show up to the party in working order. I tried a few methods over the course of the day, but ultimately had to leave it be - for now. I've learned NOT to hammer at a technical problem when I'm tired, so I turned instead to a TV movie that caught my eye: Serendipity, starring none other than a younger Kate Beckinsale - the irony of the title was not lost on me as I paused after finding it just starting on the TV. I enjoyed the movie more than I thought, for as such movies always do, it got me thinking about my own life path and the possible intersections I may have with the futures of others.
Fate, I know, DOES have a sense of humour. So I'll listen for its laugh: soon?
Feb 5 - EVERY day is my Sunday, for a while!
These slow days are very addictive; being able to call up a friend on THEIR day off, jump in the car and go hearkens back to my university days, when class ended and people headed out to enjoy their 'spare' time as they could. Today was like one of those days; a friend called to say he had his new car earlier than expected, so I popped over and we drove down to Cook St. Village to spend a few hours sipping beverages and people-watching. It was spectacularly relaxing, knowing that I was under no time pressure at all... and since the weather was lovely, so was the people-watching: lots to see!
Afternoon saw me finally get my Mushkin SSD working: a perfect copy of my Win7 PC setup hummed away as I ran some speed tests and fiddled happily with a few settings. After a few minor tweaks, the following results emerged:
It's FAST, folks! Programs load like lightning; I don't have to wait any more for a physical disk to grind it's way through the data I want. All I do now is point and click and get on with the work I want to do... and once I get a few more games installed, load times will be a thing of the past. Sure, it's half the size of the disk I had installed, but judicious placement of files on other, slower disks means that the meaty, ravenous speed of the SSD will chew through the programs I want with a vengeance. Definitely got my money's worth and a HELL of a deal at that!
I'll sleep well tonight, I think.
This week has seen me smile more than I have in the last three months, total. At least. I'm relaxing in stages, not so driven to cram relaxing into the time I have between shifts and totally unaware of any phone calls work-related. If I could have taken that damn work Blackberry into a field and gone all Office Space on it, I would have... but I had to settle for destroying it in my mind. A hundred times
Have a great week everyone! Smile!!!!
