Daytime, Discussions and Dry Hands

The word of the week is primaveral.

March 18 - First daytime shift

After getting about four hours sleep on Saturday and Sunday night this past weekend, I started my first day shift today at 10 AM with a smile on my face.

It wasn't as a difficult shift as I'd have thought considering my lack of sleep, as my enthusiasm for working while the sun is in the sky carried me through the whole day. As well, the people I work with are generally genial as are most of the customers who wander in through the door during the day. I found several similarities to my last job in that I was always busy and always dealing with customers in one way or another, as someone was always at my elbow asking questions during the day - but I don't mind that as I'm always helping people in small ways and offering my advice instead of trying to fix difficult problems with my hands tied behind my back by my employer.

That's really a great feeling and one that I can get used to.

I went home tired but not frustrated and my night's sleep was actually rather restful, as I wasn't carrying a bundle of work stress into the next day all over again. Sure, there's other stresses that I'm trying to minimize but it's a great relief to know that the only challenges I have ahead of me at work are mainly learning-related in getting used to their policies and being trained in their methodology.

That, I can do.

March 19 - Calvin and Hobbes, Animated!!!

On my bookshelf are every Calvin and Hobbes book released by Bill Waterson; I treasure them all.

What's not on my bookshelf (or any other shelf for that matter) are animated movies starring those same characters. Mr. Waterson has never authorized any sort of animated adaptation of his beloved comic strip and is unlikely to do so, as he is ferociously protective of his creation to the point where each strip might as well have been carved in granite, unchangeable by time for all eternity.

Fortunately, some fans had taken it upon themselves to do the impossible and breathe life into Mr. Waterson's creations. Below is the one and only animated short starring Calvin and Hobbes, culled from the still frames of the strip which were used as keyframes to form the completed animation. It was pulled from YouTube several times and I can't guarantee that the link below will remain active forever, but here's the link to my Dropbox folder, where I have downloaded a copy of the video just in case it vanishes again. Enjoy!

March 20 - Drying with Blades

Believe it or not, I was impressed today by hand dryer, of all things.

You know, hand dryers: those noisy loud things located in public restrooms the world over that take forever to dry your hands and blow cold air right up until the last few seconds you're using them.

Well, the mall downtown has installed a pair of next-generation dryers and I was shocked by how well they worked - without heat! They are made by Dyson and are called the AirBlade Mk2.

Now, don't get me wrong: these things won't change the world. But I believe when it comes to technology, all the little things added together will make our lives easier and allow us to shift the burden from just getting through our day to figuring out what were going to do with that while not worrying about all the little details. See how that works, now we can waste less time drying our hands.

What will you do with those extra 30 seconds two or three times every day from now on?

March 21 - First Day Of Spring, Again

It's official: we had no snow this winter here in Victoria.

Sure, we did have some frost and some flakes did fall from the sky but not a one stuck around on the ground to get its photo taken.

Spring arrived early here on South Vancouver Island, with blossoms bursting from the trees all over the city:

Victoria really is a beautiful place to live and I'm very grateful that throughout the cold months, I could look out my front window and see only green grass. The fact that it was the cloudiest winter on record here in Victoria does mean that I spent more time curled up next to my sunlamp, but I'll take that concession if it means that I don't have to wear winter boots or watch out for ice lurking under snowdrifts.

March 22 - Mechs: Then And Now

When I purchased my first Pentium-based PC twenty years ago back in the early 1990s, I was thrilled with the power it possessed in playing games. The video resolution and speed were incredible when it came to playing games like X-Wing or Descent… or Mechwarrior.

Yes, the original Mechwarrior2( and the later PentiumEdition! )that was released in 1995 was a benchmark in the videogame industry, that is still fondly remembered today by many, myself included. It was the perfect combination of story, graphics, sound and pure fun that has yet to be equaled even on modern machines. Sure, the graphics are really dated and art even "true" three-dimensional constructs, but that doesn't matter; once you started to play the game it pulled you into the 31st century and never really let you go.

Since then, there have been several iterations of Mech games that have come and gone but until the recent MechwarriorOnline that came out in mid-2012, none of them really captured the fun of Mechwarrior2. Below is a video timeline of every Mechwarrior game released that shows you just how far we've come since the first pixels were put together in the shape of a 50 ton Hunchback mech:

March 23 - What to do with me?

I received a bit of a shock this week when my new schedule came out of work:

I'd only been marked down for two shifts, total.

Needless to say, I felt disappointed after having come from a full five shifts per week on midnights. I kept my calm however and talk to several managers, keeping my tone light but still requiring answers.

As it turns out, there is still some discussion going on about how to best use me and in what role when it comes to ensuring I have the proper training before I go out on the sales floor in technology. While I do know the business I don't know the specifics of how Staples operates and so it was decided this week to leave me several days where I could train from home, which came as a welcome surprise to me.

So next week I'll be spending two days at home, training through the online system to get the necessary underpinnings to bring me more fully into the technology role that I was originally hired for. It was a relief to find that out, as I had wondered if I'd been told one thing and was being discarded after I'd done what was needed in order to help on midnights until they could hire someone else. That didn't really make sense to me and so today I relaxed, telling my worrying brain to shut up once again.

March 24 - Un-line that brow!

Today was my first care-free day in many months.

It was a conscious decision on my part: I wasn't going to do anything today to add stress to my mind, as I am wont to do all too regularly if I don't catch myself.

So I went out for breakfast to my favorite restaurant (Stone's Throw) and didn't rush.

I spent a little time playing in the closed beta of the new Neverwinter Online PC game, which was a lot of fun even with the rough edges. I think it's got potential and I hope it develops properly in the next few months.

In the afternoon I took time to Moka House, to sit in the sunshine with no agenda other than to enjoy the patio while sipping my tea and having a chocolate hedgehog for the first time in six months (they're loaded with sugar and I've been careful with that in my diet for about as long). It was heavenly and a good way to wind down for the evening.

Not much else to say, really. Until next week!