Making Sense of it All

Morning Folks Good,

Today I saw a kite flying in the air.  The wind picked it up and tossed it like a loving father tosses their child into the air.  I stood for a moment staring at the kite and wondered whether a kite would be fun to fly if there was no gravity.  Afterall, the whole fun in flying a kite is to defy the laws of gravity and having that sense of accomplishment in having something fly, seemingly by your own power.

We take for granted the little things in life.  What has happened to the days of hoops and sticks down the ol' dirt road?  What happened to the days when you could let your children run all over the neighbourhood and didn't fear they were being stalked or kidnapped?  What ever happened to buying a glass bottle of pop (that's right, glass bottles) and a bag of chips for under a buck?

Has the world around me changed or have I changed?

I'm sure my parents used to worry about things when it came to my safety.  But I don't believe there were nearly as many issues in the world as there are today.  I often long for the simple life again.  The life where I can feel safe walking down the street, where a cross walk means stop when someone wants to cross, where everyone knows who you are and you know everyone.  I long for the small town I grew up in and where I felt "safe".

{slurp} (you thought I forgot didn't you?)

Of course in order to move back to the town I grew up in I would need to find something to do to make money.  There just isn't the same kind of jobs back there as there are in the city.  I can't just walk into the local gas station or video store and get a job paying minimum wage and expect to raise my family off that salary.  Can I?

Meh

This is taking me forever to write today.  Even though work is VERY light today, I still find I'm getting distracted and pulled away more frequently than normal.  With that, I will end this for today and pick up on these ideas again on Monday.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers,
Al

Getting it Out There

Morning Folks,

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It is a beautiful Wednesday morning here in Halifax.  The sun is up, the trees are green and full, the ocean is glistening and the hum of the downtown seems less annoying.  Yes, it is a good day.

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I wanted to talk a bit about fear and censorship today.  Too many times we've hit that preverbal backspace key on things we wanted to say but feared the outcome of our actions if we did.  During this post, I promise to you I will NOT hit my backspace key (with the exception of a mistype) and I will not sensor what I'm trying to say.

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For example, I dislike my job.  Now I know for a fact there are co-workers who sometimes frequent my site and will read this.  It's no secret folks, anyone who has spent any amount of time looking through my past posts will get the feeling I dislike my job :)  My job is boring.  I don't feel challenged on a daily basis and at the end of the day I feel a lack of accomplishment and willingness to wake the next day and do it all over again.  My job is mundane, repetitive and boring the life out of me.  So much so, I've started updating my resume and my Monster profile in hopes of attracting something a bit more geared to my skill level.

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I spent 8 years in Calgary training to be a UNIX Systems Administrator.  When I applied for my job here, it was to be just that.  Imagine my surprise when I moved to Halifax and found out I wasn't doing what I wanted to do and wasn't doing the job I applied and was hired for.  It has been almost 2 years since then and my skill in UNIX had dropped quite a bit.  My drive and my will has been slowly beaten out of me by the constant mundane tasks and mindless user requests we get on a daily basis.  Of course, I'm not alone in this thought.  There are other people in my team and in my engagement who feel the same way.  In some cases, they don't know any better.  Luckily, I do, and can share what an IT company SHOULD be like.  Despite all the bitching and complaining I did about my last job, it is nothing compared to being bored all day watching the clock tick by minute by minute.

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What else can I do?  Nothing of course.  I have bills to pay, I have rent to pay and my family to support.  We are coming up on the Summer months and plan on doing some camping and getting out of the house and spending time as a family.  My job is easy, so I guess you could say it is easy money.  I do make a good wage, so things aren't all bad.  My team lead (whom I'm very thankful for) has made several comments on how things could be "worse" and how our company isn't THAT bad.  Truth be told, the particular engagement I work on is so secluded from the rest of the company, it hardly feels like I work for this company.  If that makes any sense.

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Enough about work though.  Let's get back to that first paragraph where I was describing how beautiful it was today and now much I'm liking living in Halifax.  If you read my thoughts a year or so ago (after moving here) you will see a sharp contrast in opinion.  We have endured some hard times since moving here.  Life hasn't been easy and still remains to throw us some challenges, but we tackle them head on and press through.  We are currently waiting on a ruling from the court on whether we owe money based on a bad Real estate transaction that took place last year.  I'm sure I wrote about the possibility of us buying a house back in August 2006.  Well that deal fell through and our Realtor did not protect our rights.  As a result, the home owner (who had bought a new house because on paper we had bought hers) ended up having to relist and sell her home again and came after us for the difference.  We've been to small claims court twice and are anxiously awaiting the ruling.  While I have no doubt we'll owe money, I do hope the Adjudicator will take the time and give a fair ruling.  You can bet your ass we'll be going after our Realtor for the balance we end up having to pay plus the hardships we've had to endure through this ordeal.

 

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As a result of the small claims court battle, we've decided we're not going to buy a house; EVER! :)  Just kidding of course.  We do plan on buying a house someday down the road and this time we'll be keeping it in the family.  My brother-in-law, and good friend, has recently become a licensed Realtor here in Nova Scotia and has been bugging me non-stop to sign on with him to get us into a place.  Before I do anything, I want to make sure I'm squared away with my creditors and can afford a house.  I also want to make sure we are at a place in our lives where we are ready to "own the risk" of a house and are able to dedicate the time and effort needed to upkeep and maintain a house.  Buying a house isn't like renting a place.  Right now I don't care much about the structure of my townhouse because I don't own it.  I play someone else (who does own it) monthly so I can occupy the place, nothing more.

 

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Speaking of which, we are all moved in to our new place (finally).  We still have a box or two of misc. things we need to unpack and we still need to figure out how we're going to arrange furniture and stuff to make the place look nice.  Having two floors has been a MAJOR blessing for us.  The upstairs is mainly for sleeping and playing, while the downstairs is for entertainment, eating and general living.  In our last place, all of this was on the same level and very close to each other.  Having a distinct separation is nice and it helps to keep things in perspective and separated.  The kids are spending a LOT of time outdoors these days.  They both have friends who live close by and are constantly outside playing with them.  We are still a little on the cautious side because we're not used to our kids being out of our sight.  It is hard to say yes when my daughter comes to me and asks if she can go to her friends house to play.  Of course we always ensure the friend's parents are ok with the play date and then send the little ones off to the neighbors' house to play.  It's strange to go from such a "lock down" we had at the last place to the freedom of the new place.  Very very strange.

 

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Well folks, I best end this post before it turns into a novel.  I plan on spending more time on the site in the near future.  I don't know if I'll make any cosmetic changes as I'm still enjoying the way the site works and looks.  If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

 

Take care and good luck.

 

Cheers,

Al

Super Mario What?

Morning Folks,

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Found this image on the net yesterday and it made me chuckle.  For those of you who have played Super Mario Bros. will understand the caption :)  I'm not certain who drew the picture but I enjoyed it greatly.  Hats off to the artist.


Where Does Mario Go When He Dies?

New Experiment

Morning folks,

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Hopefully everyone had a safe and happy weekend (what a weekend we had).  This past weekend was a long weekend for those of us in Canada.  Next weekend is the US long weekend.  Summer is just around the bend!

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I wanted to make a quick post about a new experiment I'll be working on.  I won't divulge the details just yet, but be warned this is something fairly big and not something I'll be able to wrap up in a week, or even a month.  If it works out and the experiment is a success, it will be life changing for me and my family.  For now, I'll create a link off my Experiments page and post vague details until I am ready to unload the full details to you.

{slurp}

As I eluded to above in my opening paragraph, we had a very interesting weekend.  My sister, her husband and my niece were in a bit of a car accident this weekend.  Saturday they were taking a trip up to Northern New Brunswick when they hit a huge puddle in the middle of the highway (very raining day).  The car hydroplaned and went into the ditch rolling over and landing on its roof.  Thankfully everyone is OK and besides a few scratches on my niece from the shattered rear window, everyone was ok sans a few bumps and bruises.  We received the phone call late Saturday night and went over to visit Sunday just to make sure everything was ok.  Sadly, the Neon 2.0SX is most likely going to be a write off, but at least everyone survived.  This would be a great testament for Dodge and how safe their cars really are.

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Anyway folks, must get back at it and begin my week of work.  Keep watching this space for updates on my new Experiment :)

Cheers,
Al

All Moved In!

Good morning folks,

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What a weekend we had.  All I can say is thank God it's finally over.  We started moving Friday afternoon and didn't finish until Sunday late afternoon.  Katie and I took on the brutal task by ourselves and we did the entire move casually over the weekend in our Minivan.  Surprisingly, the only item that did not fit in the Minivan was our Queen sized box spring, everything else fit just fine.

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Of course, what would a weekend of moving be without any mishaps.  To make matters a bit more unbearable, I was on-call for the weekend as well.  Luckly enough there were no pages during the day while we moved, but during both Friday and Saturday night I received about 3 hours sleep total (in both nights).  That made for a cranky Al but I tried not to let that show.  Moving is stressful enough without the overtired being added into it.

{slurp}

So now we are all in and everything is starting to unfold.  The furnature is being organized, the boxes are being unpacked and we are starting to turn this once vacant townhouse into our future home.  The kids have really been enjoying the new place as there are other families in the complex with children and we are letting the kids out of the house to play.  This is a new thing for us because in our last place there was nowhere for the kids to go unless you wanted them to play in the parking lot.  Now we can throw open the patio door and they're gone to a neighbours house or just to play on the patio together.  It is a much different atmosphere.

{slurp}

Today our Internet, Phone and Cable get transferred.  I won't say I missed having Internet Sunday and yesterday, but I found it interesting how "lost" I felt without having a phone.  Internet is something that I deal with daily, but as soon as you want to call home and realize there is no way to contact your family, you get a little edgy.  Hopefully the Cable guy shows up at our new place sooner than later :)

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Well folks, I must go and get some work done.  Today promises to be busy and I must get some work done.

Cheers,
Al

The Friday You'll Never Forget!

Good morning folks,

{slurp}

That's right, I have a coffee this morning and I actually have a few moments to sit and write.  First off, let's define the word Friday:

Friday is traditionally considered the sixth day of the week, falling between Thursday and Saturday, as it does in countries that adopt a Sunday-first convention.  In countries adopting the Monday-first  and in work-based conventions, it is the fifth day of the week.

Now hopefully, here is something you didn't already know :)

The name Friday comes from the Old English word frigedaeg, meaning the day of Frige the Anglo-Saxon form of Frigg, the Germanic goddess of Beauty.

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The word Friday in most Romance Languages is derived from the name of Venus such as vendredi in French,

Ahh Friday, how we love this day as it typically is symbolic of the end of our work week.  Unfortunately for me, it is only the beginning :)

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We're Moving!

Yes, I realize this is very sudden, but we met with our Landlord yesterday and we went over the place briefly with him.  We decided that we would like to move in ASAP and forego the paint job (which it didn't really need).  As a result, theer are workers showing up there this morning to make a few repairs and touch up some needed paint spots and then we can go ahead and move in.  Looks like we'll start by moving some minor stuff today and tomorrow and finish off the big move Sunday (Mother's Day).  Looks like we're in for a fairly busy weekend.

{slurp}

So why are we in such a rush to move?  Well, this place became available and we went to take a look at it.  I think the first thing that attracted us was the fact it was a 2 storey town house with 3 bedrooms.  Not only that, the place reminds me a great deal of the Townhouse we had while living in Alberta and those were good memories.  I won't say the place is perfect as it could some a few touch ups, but it is perfect for us right now and with it being a lot closer to the school, it will make life a little easier on the mind.

Of course, as luck would have it, I'm on-call this weekend.  Not only that, but I need to work tonight from 10:30pm until shortly after 2:00am.  Doesn't that sound like a lot of fun? :)  Then while I'm moving stuff back and forth between our old place and new place (which is only a 1-2min drive lol) I may get paged and have to find a PC to login to work and... well.... work.

{slurp}

It will all be good in the end though as we'll have this nice place to stay in for the same cost of our current place and a neighbourhood of kids all around us.  I'm looking forward to some good times in this place.

Well folks, I must begin my day here at work.  I imagine we'll be without Internet for a couple days during this move so I may not get a chance to post any pics or update the site for a few days.  I do plan on uploading some pictures though so check back soon for that update.

Cheers,
Al

Lots of Stuff

Afternoon folks,

Apologies for the lack of recent updates.  We've been having a lot of things going on in our life and there hasn't been a lot of time for my sensless ramblings.  Of course, we are also preparing to move soon and are basically just waiting on our landlord to call letting us know when we can pick up the keys and start moving in.  We went down last week and signed a year lease for the new place and are really looking forward to getting in there.

From dealing with the surplus of work (since 3 people on our team have left) to dealing with getting sued over a bad real estate deal last year, life has thrown its fair share of curve balls at us.  Luckly I used to play baseball and know how to use my life bat.  Everytime a new problem presents itself, I look for ways to overcome.

Again, apologies for the lack of updates recently.  Once the move is done and things start to settle down, I'll be right back at it again :)

Cheers,
Al