The word of the week is relief.
February 11 - Five Interests
I mentioned last week that I'm working on forming a company.
As a matter of fact, I'm working on forming TWO companies: one of them has to
do with the idea for an Internet service and the other has to do with a
bicycling product. Not quite alone the lines of what Bender has in mind:
In addition to laying the groundwork for both of these
future companies, I've been steadily grinding away at getting started in the
freelance writing business. Which doesn't pay a lot but it would be a steady income
which I can do now that I can use my computer easily with the voice recognition
software working as it should have in the first place.
On top of those three areas, the idea of doing voice acting work is
still rattling around in my head, as is working on my novel which I hope to
keep plugging away at to really polish the third draft this spring. And the new job is the fifth thing on my little life list.
So that's Five Interesting Things to keep me occupied and VERY
busy for the next few months. Hopefully at least one of those areas of focus
will result in something tangible happening; I know I'll be putting all my
energies into doing what I can instead of focusing on waiting for something to
happen.
February 12 - Footwear?
For the first time in many years, I was out today shoe
shopping. Weird, eh? I'm one of those people who only know it's time for new
shoes when holes appear in a sole…
There was a going out of business sale at Athletes World
downtown this week, with savings of up to 70% on everything in the store.
Seeing as the last time I bought a pair of 'pure' running shoes was when they were also on sale,
I figured this was a good chance to pick up a new pair to use as I work up to
getting into running this spring.
As it turns out, I ended up getting two pairs of shoes:
runners and a pair of casuals, which I've never really had before as style isn't
usually something I buy in a shoe.
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| Looks quite gripping, eh? |
The runners I picked up are great and are made by the same
company that my old runners are. The shoes are the Shadow Genesis by
Saucony, which have received rave reviews at BelieveInTheRun.com - what I
particularly liked was the fact that they seem to be very long wearing shoes,
which fits right in with my penchant for getting the absolute maximum life out
of my footwear purchases.
I'm looking forward to trying these out now that the good
weather is starting to appear here. Taking a run around the perimeter of Beacon Hill Park close by will be a pleasure in these great shoes and I should be able
to get in about three or four runs a week at about 5 km each on their longest
circuit.
February 13 - Holy Donuts!
I've often heard it said that Tim Horton's franchises are
like having a license to print money. It's certainly true that few Timmy's
have ever closed for a lack of business.
But what does it actually cost to start up and run a Tim
Horton's franchise? Having worked there all those years ago, I was generally
familiar with what was needed to run a store in terms of staff and product but
I've never been able to find any numbers on what the real expenses were.
Just search over at Franchisedirect.com and you'll deal to
find information on many of the franchises out there, including Tim Horton's. I
was surprised to see that it's not as expensive as I'd expected to operate a
store, but you're certainly going to need more than a small business loan in
order to get started. I estimate that the return. For a franchise investment is
about a decade, to where you've repaid all your initial costs and you really
start to make money. This also assumes that you have more than one store, as
that accelerates the process to where a decade really sees you making a great
living from Canadians who just can't live without their coffee or donut.
Me, I've had my fill from years ago.
Me, I've had my fill from years ago.
February 14 - I GOT A CALL!
It seems I have a reason to love Valentine's Day this year
after all!
Needless to say, I was ecstatic! This was the first phone
call I've received from a prospective employer in over a year - 54 weeks, to be
exact.
I went in around dinnertime to the store and had an
interview with the assistant manager, who told me almost immediately that she
liked me after we had talked for just a few minutes about my qualifications. She
called in the store manager and a few minutes after that they told me they
wanted to hire me for the night shift, which I had known about already from talking to the
assistant manager during the call earlier today.
It seems that they need some temporary help for a few
weeks while two out of their three night staffers, who work putting out
stock, were out due to injuries. It was expressed to me that when those
staffers were back, I would be switched to a daytime position in either the
technology or general sales sections.
However you looked at it, it means I HAVE A JOB, at last! RED-LETTER DAY!
Now I can get my life moving again, at least financially.
Now I can get my life moving again, at least financially.
February 15 - Back to work!
I forced myself to stay up until 3:30am,
to prepare for the night shifts to come. I have done a few years of night shifts
almost a decade ago, so I know what to do to prepare and how to stay awake
while remaining able to function effectively.
I went in early tonight and got to work right away to make a
good impression. As it turns out, my overnight coworker was incredibly easy to
work with and there were no first-day-on-the-job jitters on my part. All of the
skills from my days at The Office Place came back to me very quickly and I managed
to maintain an excellent pace keeping up with my coworker to set a great
pace for getting things done. Soon enough, it was as though I had been doing the
job for weeks as I worked steadily through the morning hours to get stock out
onto the floor, barely needing to ask where anything went as I adapted quickly
to their store layout.
Indeed, in the morning my coworker told the store manager
who was opening he was extremely impressed with the way I'd helped to get so much done, despite being unfamiliar with the store or their stock system.
This was probably why the store manager quickly told me that
he wanted me to work five nights a week for the next two weeks - full-time
hours right off the bat! I start on Monday!
I went home tired but happy, having gone from being
unemployed yesterday to having a full-time job today. It may not be a job
that's going to quickly pay all my bills or get me a silly super-yacht, but I am certainly MUCH better off than I was
yesterday and it's definitely better than asking for handouts. No question!
So I'm back among the employed, happily so.
February 16 - Living-room... Hoth?
Some really cool Star Wars news this week!
A really big geek decided to turn his living room into a
diorama of the Battle Of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back… and it looks
incredible!
I think of all the battles from all the Star Wars films, the
Battle of Hoth is my favorite. It's gritty, fast-paced and just looks so cool
with the AT-AT's attacking in the snow:
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| Those explosions ARE lit from within - nice job! |
Check out the full story at i09.com where you can see a
little bit more about what possessed this guy to re-create Hoth where his couch
used to be.
Makes you wonder if someone out there right now is
considering putting up a bunch of trees in their kitchen to give a place for
Ewoks and the Empire to battle it out…
February 17 - Midnight Madness
Yesterday and today I stayed up as late as I could, well
into the early morning hours in order to prepare myself for coming midnight
shifts over the next two weeks.
It hasn't been easy, as I've been waking up every few hours
as well as at the occasional thump that comes through the wall from the kitchen
in the next-door apartment. I'll be leaving a very, very polite note for my
neighbors in the morning, which I hope will mean that the occasional crashing
drawer will be silenced soon.
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| Not my favourite game to play, sleep deprivation... |
I'm not a big fan of midnight shifts, for the simple reason
that they don't agree with my physiology: I'm not a night owl. There are many
things to appreciate about working midnights, not the least of which is usually
not having to deal with too many people, depending on the job that you're
working. When I was working those graveyard shifts many years ago, I did enjoy
the fact that there were far fewer distractions from getting your job done.
However, I could only get my job done by staying awake and to do that I
eventually had to go through two large pots of tea every night, which didn't do my
stomach much good at the end.
It's going to be an interesting two weeks, coming up. When
all is said and done, I should end up with a full-time job on day shifts that
will pay the bills and hopefully have enough left over to get ahead a little
month by month as I work on my Five Interesting Things that I mentioned at the
beginning of this week's blog.
Any one of those things could take off and ironically mean
that I may not need a day job. But, as any writer knows, you shouldn't quit
your day job as most writers are lucky if they can just make a living doing
what they love.
Which, really, most people would love to say about the
passions in their lives. Right?
It's a little strange to be finishing this blog before
midnight tonight, as that's usually the last thing I do before going to bed on
a Sunday. Tonight however, I'll be up for at least another six hours until well
after dawn in order to keep my new biological schedule ticking along. So I'll
be doing a little reading, some writing and probably a lot of yawning with a
little caffeine tossed in to keep my eyes open. It's going to be a very
interesting week, I think, but I'm grateful despite being very tired already as
it means that I'm employed. I'd have to say that's a pretty darn good
Valentine's Day gift this year.
